"Five Little Speckled Frogs" is a

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

that originated in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

; the original author is unknown. This song is meant to teach children

subtraction Subtraction is an arithmetic operation that represents the operation of removing objects from a collection. Subtraction is signified by the minus sign, . For example, in the adjacent picture, there are peaches—meaning 5 peaches with 2 taken ...

, in this case by describing frogs jumping off of a log into a pool, one by one.

Lyrics

One version of the song is: \transpose bes d \addlyrics

Alternate versions

Alternate versions of the song use other sorts of insects or animals instead of frogs, although none of these songs seem to be as common.

Hand motions

There are hand motions children may use to participate during the song. * Line #1: By show of fingers, hold up the number of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s sitting on the log. * Line #2: Draw in your hands close to your chest and curl your fingers downward, facing the floor as though you are a frog perched atop a log. * Line #3: Mimic eating while you sing 'Eating some most delicious bugs', then rub your belly delightfully while singing 'yum, yum!'. * Line #4: Hold one finger up to represent the frog who fell off the log. * Line #5: Pretend to fall over. * Line #6: By a show of fingers, hold up the number of frogs still remaining on the log while singing "Now there are four little speckled frogs". Upon singing "(glub, glub)", repeat the same movement as in the second line except look upward as though you were a frog underneath water.

In Popular Culture

The band DragonForce's song Heart of a Dragon's melody is essentially the same as the melody of this song.

References

External links

* {{Portal , Children's literature English children's songs Songs about amphibians Nursery rhymes of uncertain origin