Five Little Ducks Printable Lyrics, Origins, and Video

Teaching kids how to count using nursery rhymes is a fun activity. Children pay more attention when they like something. Five Little Ducks and many more rhymes serve the purpose of making classroom lessons and homeschooling exciting. 

It is an old rhyme with unknown origins. In fact, no one knows who wrote the original version and when. That said, we have some interesting background information about the nursery rhyme. Over the years, it has become popular and translated into different languages like German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.  

How can you not know the lyrics for such a famous nursery rhyme? Read on for more information. 

Written Lyrics

Five little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill 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 hill 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 hill 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 hill 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 hill and far away
Mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But none of the five little ducks came back.

Sad mother duck
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
The sad mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack.”
And all of the five little ducks came back.

Printable Lyrics 

Download the printable PDF file with the original lyrics of Five Little Ducks. 

Photo Lyrics 

Save the below image on your device for the lyrics of the nursery rhyme. 

Video Links

Check out this heartwarming animated version: 

Here’s a video with the original lyrics: 

Origins and History

The main purpose of Five Little Ducks has been the same forever- it teaches kids how to count. Many singers and artists came up with more versions of the original. Canadian singer and composer Raffi made the song famous when he released it in his album Rise and Shine. The song once again became well-known when Denise Fleming wrote a picture book with the song in 2016.

All variations are not a hit for many nursery rhymes and traditional folk songs. Five Little Ducks is no exception. One version replaced the word mother with father only in the last stanza. This felt sexist and problematic. It seemed as if the mother duck did nothing when the ducklings got lost, but it took just one call from the father duck for the little ones to come home. 

Of course, you can still replace the mother duck with other ducks as long as you do it throughout the poem. You can also use a different word for each stanza and make the rhyme more engaging. 

Some people expressed concern over the message the song sends to little kids. It took the mother ducks so long to search for her kids. But then, it's probably something that happens every day. It’s not like kids are new to mischief, and mothers get stressed trying to multitask. 

Kids may question the reason behind this or wonder why the mother duck didn’t bother. Parents and teachers can come up with creative ways to answer the questions.  

FAQs