Hop Into Spring! 5 Frog Songs Your Elementary Music Students Will Love

Are you looking to bring some springtime fun—or just a splash of silliness—into your elementary music lessons? Frog songs are a hit in my classroom year after year, and I’ve rounded up my absolute favourites in this post. From games that get students giggling and moving, to songs that sneak in musical concepts like sol-mi and sixteenth notes, these tunes are as educational as they are entertaining. Whether you’re teaching rhythm, pitch, movement, or just need a fresh idea for your spring concert, there’s something here for everyone.

PLUS—Don’t miss the freebie with sheet music and lyrics for every frog song I mention below. Grab it now and hop right into your next lesson with confidence!

Click here for a freebie with the sheet music and lyrics for each frog song in this blog post

og in the Meadow
I couldn’t write a blog about frogs without starting with my all-time favourite frog song- Frog in the Meadow. Typically, this is the song that I use to reinforce sol and mi while simultaneously teaching quarter rest. But the best part of the song (at least in my students’ opinion) is the games that go with the song.

Version 1

• The students stand in a circle holding hands. One student is inside the circle; they are the frog. 
• Another student is outside the circle, they are the fly
• The frog has their eyes closed. While the class sings the song, the fly walks around the circle.
• At the end of the song, the class lets the frog out by lifting up their hands. The frog and fly run around the circle as the frog tries to catch the fly.
• The frog has eight beats to try to catch the fly. 

Version 2

• The class is standing in a circle holding hands while singing the song
• While the class sings, one student who is the frog walks around the circle
• At the end of the song, the frog splits the two people's hands that are closest to it. Those two students race around the circle in opposite directions (like duck, duck, goose). The first person to tap the frog becomes the new frog. 

I have an entire Frog in the Meadow lesson pack in my TPT store that includes slides on presenting sol & mi and quarter rest, composition manipulatives, worksheets for assessment, and instrument activities to go with the song, allowing you to extend your use of this song even further!

Buy the Frog in the Meadow Lesson Pack Here!

5 Frogs sitting on the Well
This is a newer frog poem in my collection, but it is becoming an increasingly favourite of both my students and me. I have recently found a way to use it with all my students, from kindergarten to grade 6. 
K-2

• Creative Movement: After introducing this poem, I had the students act out with their bodies what the frog was doing. We acted it out in place, around the room, as individuals, and as a group. We even performed our movement composition to the poem for their classroom teachers without saying the words, and had the classroom teachers guess what animal they were and what they were doing.
  

• Play it on Xylophones: After we moved to the poem, we put it on xylophones. This is a great poem for reviewing going up and down and how to play high and low sounds on xylophones.
  
  • When the frog looks up with a glissando up
    
  • When the frog falls down with a glissando going down
    
  • When the frog jumps up, we play individual notes for eight beats, getting higher on the xylophones on each beat 
    
  • When the frog jumps down, we play individual notes for eight beats, getting lower on the xylophone 
    
  • When the frog dances all around, we play all around the xylophone for seven beats, and we freeze on C on the eighth beat. 
    

Grade 3-6 

• You could start with the creative movement, some classes I do, some I don’t. It just depends on the class 
  
• Figure out the Rhythms: When you put the poem on a 12-beat chart, you end up with 16th note rhythms and eighth note-sixteenth combinations, which I am often reviewing at this time. (Disclaimer: my grade 3 and 4 students don’t know sixteenth-eighth notes yet, so I just put a question mark and tell them it's a rhythm with three sounds
  
• Xylphone Improv: Then we will take the rhythm of the poem and improvise a melody to go with it. 
  
  • You put your xylophones into a pentatonic scale, and students play any notes that they want to the rhythm of the poem 
    
  • I will do it quite a few times as a whole class, then I will have students volunteer to improvise a line at a time by themselves. This gives them a chance to hear themselves without taking too long. ​
    

Ribbet Ribbet Ribbet
This song holds nostalgia for me, as it was one of the first songs I ever taught during my first student teaching placement. I had actually forgotten about it until I was preparing a frog theme medley for a spring performance. 

This song is a good introduction to minor music for students, without actually defining it. However, my students often say something is “weird” about this song. It also expands their vocal range and gets younger students out of the sol, mi, la land. 

And it is another song where the game is king. Now, for this game, you need a little bit of space, so you might want to take it outside, but overall, the game is simple 

• You choose 5-7 students for a frog jump off. They all line up at one end of the classroom. 
• The rest of the students sing the song 
• On “ribbet, ribbet, ribbet,” the jump off students do 3 (ONLY 3) of their best frog jumps
• The student who jumps the furthest is the winner.  

My student will sing this song for days, knowing they get to play this game. And if we ever get to the point where I am singing harder than they are, I drop out, and if they can’t keep the song going, we stop playing! 

onourable Mention 
While the next two frog songs don’t have tons of extra extension, they are classics, and I couldn’t justify leaving them off this list.

Five Green and Speckled Frogs 
A simple counting song that I often use with my kindergarten students. I will give each of them a frog and randomly call on a student to jump their frog in the pond. Not everyone gets called all the time, so we really work on our patience and our listening skills!

MMM Ah, went the Little Green Frog
This song sends me right back to my days at camp as a camper and counsellor. It’s just plain fun and silly! 
The song has some basic action with it 

• MMM AH- start with a closed fist, then pop your hand open on AH  
• La di da di da- Clap and jazz hands 

I will also begin introducing tempo using this song, since we like to sing it faster, and faster, and faster!

So there you have it! 5 songs, frog-themed songs to use in your elementary music classroom! I have used these songs as a one-off lesson, and I programmed them as a medley for spring concerts. They are super versatile! 

Make sure you grab the free projectable lyrics and notation for all these frog songs!

Click here for a freebie with the sheet music and lyrics for each frog song in this blog post

Enjoy!
​Jayna