"The Four-Legged Zoo" is a song in Schoolhouse Rock!, which can be seen in Multiplication Rock. The song teaches us how to multiply by four.
Lyrics[]
All: We went to the four-legged zoo
To visit our four-footed friends
Kids: Lions and tigers, cats and dogs
A goat and a cow and a couple of hogs
Bob Dorough: A rhinoceros and of course a hippopotamus
And, oh yes, a horse
Kids: There were elk and bison, a gnu or two
Giraffes and elephants, quite a few
Bob: A llama, alpaca, vicuna too
Zebras, ibexes, and one big kudu
It was swell.
Kid: I liked the gazelle.
Kids: Now Miss Simpson said... She teaches school, you know - Yeah, she took us there. Well, Miss Simpson said - If we counted every head on these quadrupeds, Then multiplied that number by four, We'd know how many feet went through the door, If we turned 'em all loose. Oh no, don't do that! It's really a groovy zoo. But, anyway, what Miss Simpson said, It was a good chance to work on our fours in our head. One, two, three, four!
Bob: I'll take a lion (Kids: 1 X 4)
He's got four legs and maybe a roar
Kids: Gimme two camels (That's 2 X 4)
Eight legs walking 'cross the desert floor
Bob: A tiger and a lamb and a fat kudu
All: Would be 3 X 4 = 12 legs too
Bob: But we might have to subtract when that tiger was through (Rowwwr!)
Four four-footed friends, no matter who
Would have 16 legs, and it's always true
All: That's 4 X 4 is 16
5 X 4 is 20
Bob: Now a coach and six, if you were Cinderella
Would have you home by midnight
If those 24 legs ran fast as light
Kids: 6 X 4 is 24
7 X 4 is 28
Bob: Anyone knows that who cares about seven
All: And 8 antelope have 32 legs 'cause 8 X 4 is 32
Bob: Here comes a small herd of buffalo
They say they're getting extinct, you know
Kids: I count nine - that's 36 legs
9 X 4 is 36
Here comes a baby buffalo
Bob: That's good! That's ten!
And 10 X 4, you know, is 40
Eleven coyotes (Kids: 11 X 4)
Went slinkin' over the prairie floor
On all of their legs (Kids: = 44)
Now 12 X 4 is as high as we go
Kids: 12 X 4 = 48
Bob: But there were so very, very, many, many more
Animals standing there by the gate
All: That we'd have to use a pencil if we counted them all
And we really had fun, and we saw every one
Kids: A bear!
A cougar!
A jackal!
A yak!
A fox!
Some deer and a sweet giraffe
Bob: I can't remember how many, many more
All: But we multiplied them all by four
And some of them thanked us with a roar