There are several factors that make a great cartoon on Schoolhouse Rock. The most important factor for a Schoolhouse Rock song is a song that is fun to sing along with. But since Schoolhouse Rock is an educational program it is also important for each cartoon to have a good lesson. These are the 10 cartoons that best combine a fun time with a good lesson.
10. Energy Blues
Jack Sheldon as the sun singing the blues was a perfect combination. This Schoolhouse Rock song was also a good lesson on all the different ways that we create energy.
9. $7.50 a Week
The Schoolhouse Rock song about a boy and his $7.50 allowance is a good lesson on money, adding subtracting and even some good shopping tips like comparing prices before buying something.
8. A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing
I’m not crazy about the nouns song but it is a very good lesson for leaning nouns. The song describes different scenes and situations and then afterwards explains what items from the scene are nouns.
7. Elementary, My Dear
This song is the one good math song on Schoolhouse Rock. The song itself is pretty catchy but it teaches a good lesson as well. The multiplying by 2 song doesn’t just go through small numbers like two times two is four or two times ten is twenty. It also teaches how to figure out two times large numbers, like 174 by adding 100 times two, 70 times two and four times two together.
6. Interjections
Interjections was one of the most fun songs to sing along with since you get to scream out the interjections as they flash on the screen.
5. Tyrannosaurus Debt
I love that Schoolhouse Rock has a song dedicated to the growing National Debt. Let’s teach kids right off the bat that the government sucks.
4. Unpack Your Adjectives
I love the song about unpacking your adjectives on Schoolhouse Rock. A little girl carries around a backpack and pulls out an adjective written on a piece of paper and hands it to the person or thing they are describing. I’d love to do this one day. Just walk up to somebody and hand them piece of paper that says “ugly” or “dumb” on it.
3. Three-Ring Government
What a great cute song and cartoon and creative way to explain the process of making laws. In this cartoon a poor down-on-his-luck bill is waiting and waiting to become a law and along the way he explains to the boy how the entire process works.
2. Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla has to be the most fun song to sing along with, if you can learn. Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla also does a good job of teaching pronouns although I’m not sure how quickly children will catch on to what he’s talking about.
1. Conjunction Junction
Conjunction Junction is the most well-known Schoolhouse Rock song, has a great tune and is sung by my favorite, Jack Sheldon (who you may also know as the voice of Louie the Lightning Bug). In addition to that, Conjunction Junction actually teaches about conjunctions in great detail. In the fifteen plus years of school that I had nobody every taught me about conjunctions better than Schoolhouse Rock.
