Comments on: Tooth Bugs

By: Vicki Wallace

Vicki Wallace — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:49:02 +0000

Thank you for this article! We are putting together a songbook for our family reunion of songs my husband\’s parents sang to their children and the Toothbug song was one of them. We were excited to have the correct words! I can see why the church has gone to the more spiritual songs especially since primary is on Sundays now. But, in the olden days when it was held on weekdays, I can see why they sang the fun songs with the kids.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:51:27 +0000

Here\’s how I remember the song from singing it in the 1960s and 70s:

Five pennies make a nickel,
Two nickels make a dime.
Ten dimes will make a dollar,
And we will make it shine.
It\’s for the crippled children
Who cannot walk or run,
Who have to stay in bed all day
And cannot join our fun.

So come, little children,
A-bring your pennies here
To help the crippled children
Grow stronger year by year.

We march along and sing our song
And pray that they may be
A little stronger every day
Because of you and me.

[Insert comments between children about how \"A penny will make them *this* much better, but a nickel will make them *THIS* much better,\" and discussions about why some magnanimous rich person doesn\'t just give a million dollars and make them all better.]

By: Susan Y.

Susan Y. — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 06:05:19 +0000

Hi Ardis, I did as you suggested and went to lds.org church history and requested the music for the Primary Penny Song. In a couple of days, via e-mail, I received a copy of the sheet music. Thanks for that idea. Over the past few weeks I have taught the “Little Brother Vegetable” song and the “Tooth Bug” song in Primany at the end of singing time. I gave the children carrot and celery sticks when we sang “Little Brother Vegetable” and I gave each one of them a tooth brush when we sang “Tooth Bugs”. They loved it! I found packs of tooth brushes, eight for a dollar, at our local variety store. We have a small primary so it only costs me four dollars and then I had some tooth brushes left over. I put each tooth brush in a sandwich baggie to keep it clean. I also found some great pictures to go with the song. How fun to relive some of the old Primary songs from “my days” in Primary. I have some pretty neat ideas for Primary music. I will share if anyone is interested. Just let me know what song you are teaching and I will tell you what I have done with it. Susan

By: Susan Y.

Susan Y. — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:46:03 +0000

Starfoxy, Wow, thanks for the rest of the words to the “Primary Penny Song”. I am anxious to teach them to my little granddaughter. This has been a great site to have stumbled on to. I hope that through it I can be of help to others in bringing back old memories, etc. of our younger years and church topics. Thanks again, Susan Y.

By: Starfoxy

Starfoxy — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:30:24 +0000

“So let us be unselfish, and bring our pennies here.
To help the crippled children become stronger year by year,
Let’s marxh along and sing our song, and pray that they may be,
a little better ev’ry day, because of you and me.”

By: Susan Y.

Susan Y. — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:05:35 +0000

Ardis, Thanks for the info. on the Primany Penny Song. I will do as you suggest. I do remember all the words to that song up to the point of which you sent but after that I can’t remember the rest. I can also remember the tune, if only the rest of words would come to me. Hopefully I will have success contacting lds.org -church history. As I am thinking about the rest of the song, I think that it goes something like this: “So let us be unselfish and bring our pennies here to help the crippled children to grow better year by year” . . . . Then I don’t know what comes next. Thanks again Ardis. I will let you know if I have any luck finding the music. If you have all the words to that song please post them on this site. As I said before, I do remember the tune so the rest of the words would be great. Heres to great singing, Susan Y.

By: Ardis Parshall

Ardis Parshall — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:17:57 +0000

Five pennies make a nickel,
Two nickels make a dime,
Ten dimes will make a dollar,
How weâ€™ll make it shine.
Itâ€™s for the crippled children
Who cannot walk or run;
Who have to lie in bed all day,
And cannot join our fun.

Roxie, Susan, this one is from the 1939 Primary Song Book (that’s its title – p. 160). I don’t have a way to post the music, sorry. Here’s a possibility: Go to lds.org — about the church — church history — church history library and archives — contact us. You can use that form to send a request to the Church History Library. Since you have a specific book and page to ask for, perhaps they will be willing to photocopy and mail it to you.

By: Susan Y.

Susan Y. — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:24:37 +0000

Roxie, Here are the words to “Little Brother Vegetable”: (First Verse) Little Brother Vegetable sat within a dish, Cooked and seasoned spicily as you’d ever wish, Said Little Brother Vegetable, “Just you look at me! I’m the food of hidden treasure; Eat me and you’ll see!”
(Second Verse) Little Brother Vegetable, Brings good health to you, Cheeks grow red as any rosebud, Eyes will sparkle too, If you want lots of vim and pep For your work and play, Better eat your vegetables Every single day! Hope that you can remember the tune. This is such a cute song! Hope that we both can come by the words to the Primary Penny Song; Five pennys make a nickel, two nickels make a dime. . I am looking for that one also. Gald to help you out with “Little Brother Vegetable”. Have fun singing. Susan Y.

By: Susan Y.

Susan Y. — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:09:43 +0000

It has been fun to read comments about the \”good old\” Primary songs that I learned when I was in Primary awhile back!! I am the Primary Music Leader in my ward and remembered that I had a copy of \”Little Brother Vegetable\” and \”Tooth Bugs\” plus some other old songs. I went ahead and taught the children \”Little Brother Vegetable\”, the kids loved it. I gave them carrot and celery sticks after we sang the song. \”Tooth Bugs\” in on my schedule to teach next Sunday. I figure if I was taught those songs in Primary, when I was young, then they are still okay to teach to the children now. I don\’t see anything wrong with teaching them a wholesome variety of good \”stuff\” in Primary. I would love to get hold of the music to the \”Primary Penny Song\”. That is one of my favorite songs. If anyone has that music I would sure like to have a copy of it. Thanks so much and happy singing! Susan Y.

By: Roxie L. Roes

Roxie L. Roes — Mon, 21 May 2007 05:31:45 +0000

I just read some of the other posts after I had posted before about finding some songs I want. It sounds like I am older than the majority of postees. I was born in 1953 and went all of my primary days to weekday primary meetings. I learned to knit, crochet and crosstich. I had and still have my green bandelo. No, sacrament was not served at primary but in Jr. SS on Sunday mornings. My mother told me it was to help the children learn to partake of the sacrament regularly and to teach them what the sacrament was for, to remember Jesus and learn to repent of their sins. I am sure it helped some. We had to memorize scriptures each year to earn diamonds on our bandelos. The boys were Trailbuilders and the church did not sponsor cub scouts at that time. The boys also had bandelos and I think they were blue. We celebrated all holidays, yes, even Halloween with songs from the green Children Sing and the old copper colored Primary song book which is the one that had Toothbugs. Sometimes there were new songs published in The Children’s Friend, which is what it used to be called before it became just The Friend. That is where we first learned I am a Child of God and I Wonder When He comes Again, is from them being published in The Children’s Friend. We also collected birthday pennies for the Primary Children’s Hospital. In the month when you had your birthday you brought a penny for every year you were old and there was a time in opening exercises when they collected the pennies. You could bring pennies when in wasn’t your birthday because it was for the crippled children. That is another song I would like to find is the one that starts “5 pennies make a nickel 2 nickels make a dime 10 dimes will make a dollar how we’ll make it shine. It’s for the crippled children who cannot walk or run but have to stay in bed all day and cannot join the fun.” My memory gets fuzzy after that about the words. I would love to have all of these songs. It is good to rememeber and it gives me ideas about things I need to write down in my life history for my children about my childhood in the church. Sorry this got so long. Roxie