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Five little speckled frogs is a nursery rhyme similar to Ten Green Bottles in its format.

Five little speckled frogs

Sat on a speckled log

Eating some most delicious grubs.

One jumped into the pool

Where it was nice and cool

Then there were four green speckled frogs.

The verse is then repeated, but with one fewer frog each time.

Alternatives include using the word bugs instead of grubs, and adding "Yum, yum!" after that line.

Contents 1 Variant 2 =Another Variant 2.1 Hand motions 2.2 Trivia

[edit] Variant

Five dumb speckled frogs

Sitting on a speckled log

Eating some some scum (yum, yum!)

One little speckled frog

Fell off the speckled log

Now there's only four dumb speckled frogs (glub, glub!)

[edit] =Another Variant

Five little speckled frogs
Sat on a hollow log
Eating some moist delicious bugs (yum, yum!)
One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are four speckled frogs!

[edit] Hand motions

There are hand motions that allow children to participate during the song.

Line one: By show of fingers hold up the number of frogs sitting on the log.

Line two: 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 three: Mimic eating while you sing 'Eating some scum', then rub your belly delightfully while singing '(yum, yum!)'.

Line Four: Hold one finger up to represent the frog who fell off the log.

Line Five: Pretend to fall over.

Line Six: By show of fingers, hold up the number of frogs still remaining on the log while singing "Now there's only four 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.

[edit] Trivia

• The British power metal band DragonForce are rumored to have used the melody of this nursery rhyme for their song Heart of a Dragon on their debut album Valley of the Damned. Herman Li, the band's guitarist said in an interview that every band steals some songs, and that they steal theirs from nursery rhymes, adding credence to this rumor.
• The Goth Metal band Type O Negative used the nursery rhyme in the soundscape Lung on their album World Coming Down. It's recited by a child towards the end of the track.
• The error that frogs eat pond scum, is similar to an error long before in the Greek mock-epic Batrachomyomachia, which says that frogs eat green vegetation. (Real frogs eat insects and similar.)