An excellent children's song to learn a few basic body parts in any language is "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". The lyrics usually vary a bit from language to language in order to fit the syllables or to fit some sort of cultural norm, but the movements to the song definitely help. In the German version, there are a few changes, which I have outlined below the video. If you are looking for a worksheet to help teach your own students the body parts, you can find that in my Patreon-supporter-exclusive folder by supporting my work.
Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß - Head, shoulder, knee(s), and foot?
In the very first line of the song, there are several changes from the English version. The most obvious is that the word "toes" has been replaced by the German equivalent of "foot". This is a strange choice of wording, since the German word for "toe" (Zeh) would have fit in the song just as well as "Fuß" does.
The second change that occurs is the change from "shoulders" to the German equivalent of "shoulder" (Schulter). This change is a bit easier to defend, as it would need an "n" in the plural, which might make it a bit more difficult to sing, but in my opinion, there is really no reason for this change either.
The last change isn't necessarily a change, but a weird thing that happens because of the German language. The singular form of "knee" is "Knie" and the plural form "knees" translates as "Knie". This means that we don't actually know if the "Knie" in the song is singular "knee" or plural "knees". I would like to make the assumption that it is plural, since the original song is plural, but that assumption doesn't hold true for the other parts of this line, so why would this part be plural when all of the others are singular?
Augen, Ohren, Nase, Mund - Eyes and ears and mouth and nose?
This line is the most confusing change to English speakers. They are used to doing the motions with the mouth first and nose second, but in the German version "Nase" comes before "Mund". This means that when I teach this in class, the students almost always do things in the "wrong" order the first time around. Again, there isn't a very good reason behind this change, but there is at least one explanation I can offer. In the English version "nose" and "toes" rhyme, which is why "mouth" has to come before "nose", but in the German version none of the words rhyme with "Fuß". The closest thing that the song translator could come up with is to switch "Nase" and "Mund" to have a partial rhyme between "Mund" and "Fuß". They both have the same vowel sound, but they don't really rhyme in the traditional sense.
Full Lyrics
Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß, Knie und Fuß 2x - Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes (2x)
Augen, Ohren, Nase, Mund - Eyes and ears and mouth and nose
Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuß, Knie und Fuß - Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
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