Five Little Ducks facts for kids
Five Little Ducks is a very old and popular children's song. It's often sung with fun hand movements, called a finger play. A famous Canadian children's singer named Raffi made it popular on his album Rise and Shine. There's even a picture book from 2016 by Denise Fleming called 5 Little Ducks that tells a new version of the song's story.
The Song: Lyrics and Music
Like many old songs, the words to "Five Little Ducks" can change a little bit. Here is a common way the song is sung:
Five little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack quack quack quack,"
But only four little ducks came back.
Four little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack quack quack quack,"
But only three little ducks came back.
Three little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack quack quack quack,"
But only two little ducks came back.
Two little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack quack quack quack,"
But only one little duck came back.
One little duck went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack quack quack quack,"
But none of the five little ducks came back.
So sad Mother duck went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack quack quack quack,"
And all of the five little ducks came back.
How to Do the Finger Play
You can do special hand movements while singing "Five Little Ducks." This is called a finger play. Here is how you can do it:
- Hold up five fingers: Do this when you sing about "Five little ducks."
- Wave your hand: Move your hand up and down like you are going over a hill. Do this for "Over the hills and far away."
- Make a beak motion: Open and close your hand like a duck's beak for "quack quack quack quack."
- Count down fingers: As the song counts down, hold up the correct number of fingers. For example, hold up four fingers when you sing about "Four little ducks."
- Repeat: Keep doing these actions as the numbers of ducks go down.
Musical Notes
Here are the musical notes for "Five Little Ducks." You can play this on an instrument or sing along.
<score %vorbis="1"%%T257066%> \new Staff << \clef treble \key c \major { \time 4/4 \autoBeamOff \relative c' { e4 d8 d8 c4 c' | b a g2 | g4 c,8 c f4 e | e d d2 \break e8 e d4 c c' | b4 a g4. g8 | g4 c, f e8 e | d4 d c2 \bar "|." } } >> \midi { \tempo 2 = 78 } </score>
Translations
"Five Little Ducks" is popular in many countries. Here are some ways to say its name in other languages:
- German: "Fünf kleine Enten"
- French: "Cinq petits canards"
- Italian: "Cinque paperelle"
- Portuguese: "Cinco patinhos"
- Spanish: "Cinco patitos"
