Five Little Ducks
U.S.A.
HISTORY AND SONG NOTES
Five Little Ducks is an American folksong. This story song works well as a group singing and fingerplay activity, as a counting activity, or as a beginning musical dramatic play or pre-literacy activity.
In addition to the text in the score above, you count down the number of ducks until there are no more remaining, and then in the last verse, they all come back!
Verse 2: Four little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away, the mother duck said “quack, quack, quack, quack!” But only three little ducks came back.
Verse 3: Three little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away, the mother duck said “quack, quack, quack, quack!” But only two little ducks came back.
Verse 4: Two little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away, the mother duck said “quack, quack, quack, quack!” But only one little duck came back.
Verse 5: One little duck went out one day, over the hills and far away, the mother duck said “quack, quack, quack, quack!” But none of the five little ducks came back.
Verse 6: (a little slower, more somber until the happy ending!) Sad mother duck went out one day, over the hills and far away, the mother duck said “quack, quack, quack, quack!” …. And all of the five little ducks came back!
Group SINGING and fingerplay
This game works well as a group singing activity, where the children and teachers use their hands to show the actions of the ducks. This is an opportunity for the teacher to model musical concepts throughout the activity by using the duck movements and their voice to illustrate the music.
With one hand, hold up the number of fingers that corresponds with the number of ducks in each verse, and then bounce your hand along with the beat of the music. The other hand makes the shape of the mother duck’s mouth, and then shows the “quack, quack, quack, quack”:
Phrase 1: Five little ducks went out one day… the hand with five fingers up bounces to the beat of the music
Phrase 2: Over the hills and far away… the hand with five fingers up rises up and down to go over the hills
Phrase 3: The mother duck said, quack quack quack quack… the other hand quacks!
Phrase 4: But only four little ducks came back… put down one finger, leaving 4 remaining
Musical Dramatic Play Activity
Preschool aged children enjoy building dramatic play activities from story songs like this one. A first step for younger children could be to try integrating props into the game, such as stuffed animals or scarves to represent the ducks.
Once they are familiar with the game, the children may enjoy acting out the story. You can try having many little ducks who move around the room with the music, and a mother duck, or ducks, who stand in the center and make the “quack, quack” sounds. Then, the little ducks “hide” in some manner; this could mean that they travel to another part of the room, or it could mean that they crouch down where they are, hiding their eyes with their hands or hiding under a scarf, then coming back or showing themselves at that point in the song.
It may be difficult for the children to count down as the song does, with one more child not coming back per verse. You may want to try just using the first and last verses - have all of the ducks hide, and then have them all come back.
It also works well to insert other actions into the song, perhaps the ducks go tiptoeing over the hills, or stomping… Once you have established the game, the children will have many ideas how to further expand the story. Enjoy!
Musical pre-literacy activity
There are many beautifully illustrated books based on this song. Singing a book is a wonderful pre-literacy activity, and the children enjoy seeing the pictures and may sing along, or excitedly comment, as they become more familiar and confident. We suggest setting this up as you would a typical group book reading session, making sure that the children have plenty of space to see the pictures, and positioning yourself so that the pages face the children as much as possible. Also, feel free to stop and pause between each verse and ask questions, or to count the ducks together.