Muscles of the Face

by Greg Crowther

This is a quick rap about the major muscles of the face (not all of them). Note that the epicranius has multiple names, including the occipitofrontalis.

It's time to get in your face:
Learn each muscle's name and place!
If you want to be an A&P ace,
It's a task you must embrace!

Medial rectus and lateral rectus
Turn your eye in and turn your eye out.
Levator labii and zygomaticus
Pull your upper lip and the corners of your mouth.

Orbiculus oris and orbicularis oculi
Wrap around the mouth and wrap around the eye.
Frontal belly of the epicranius
Raises your brow when you want to ask "Why"?

Two more facial muscles come in handy
When you're drinking deeply from the knowledge cup:
Masseter and temporalis
Close your mouth and shut you up!

That's how we get in your face:
Learn each muscle's name and place!
If you want to be an A&P ace,
It's a task you must embrace!

• sheet music

Songs like this one can be used during class meetings and/or in homework assignments. Either way, the song will be most impactful if students DO something with it, as opposed to just listening.

An initial, simple follow-up activity could be to answer the study questions below. A more extensive interaction with the song might entail (A) learning to sing it, using an audio file and/or sheet music as a guide, and/or (B) illustrating it with pictures, bodily poses, and/or bodily movements. The latter activity could begin with students identifying the most important or most challenging content of the song, and deciding how to illustrate that particular content.

(1) Several lines present a pair of muscles followed by a pair of functions. Do both muscles do both functions, or does the first muscle perform the first function while the second muscle performs the second function?

(2) Based on this song, what do you think "oris" and "oculi" mean?