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Thefourleggedzoo

The Actual Four-Legged Zoo

Schoolhouse Rock! The Four-Legged Zoo 001 0001

Two camels

The Four-Legged Zoo a song from Multiplication Rock!. It goes over multiplying by fours. It features a class going to the zoo on a field trip, and they use the legs of the animals to multiply by four. The music and lyrics are both by Bob Dorough. He also performs it with a chorus of kids, mostly those from the PBS series, ZOOM (1970 version). The original airdate was February 10, 1973. The designers for this song are Bill Peckmann (though not directly stated) and Bob Eggers, though there is little known about him.


Multiplication Rock[]

A teacher (Miss Simpson) takes her class to the zoo where they use the animals to learn the multiplication of 4 with four-legged animals (all mammals).

Lyrics[]

Bob & Children: We went to the Four-Legged Zoo, to visit our four-footed friends
Children: Lions and tigers, cats and dogs; a goat and a cow and a couple of hogs
Bob: A rhinoceros and of course a hippopotamus... oh yes, a horse!
Children: There are 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.
Jay Schertzer: I liked the gazelle.
Kenny Pires: Now Miss Simpson said...
Maura Mullaney: She teaches school, you know.
Jay Schertzer: Yeah, she took us there.
Kenny Pires: 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 them all loose.
Children: Oh no, don't do that!
Kenny Pires It's really a groovy zoo.
Children: 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
Children: One times four
Bob: He's got four legs and maybe a roar
Children: Give me two camels, that's two times four; eight legs walking across the desert floor!
Bob: A tiger and a lamb and a fat kudu...
(with chorus) ...would be three times four, equals twelve legs too
Bob: But we might have to subtract when that tiger was through... ROAR!!!


Bob: Four four-footed friends, no matter who would have 16 legs, and it's always true
Children: That's four times four is sixteen; five times four is twenty
Bob: Now a coach and six, if you were Cinderella would have you home by midnight if those 24 legs ran fast as lightning.
Children: Six times four equals 24, seven times four equals 28
Bob: Anyone knows that, who cares about seven... (with chorus) ...and eight antelope have 32 legs cause eight times four is 32
Bob: Here come a small herd of buffalo; they say they're getting extinct, you know
Jon Reuning: I count nine
Nancy Tates: That's 36 legs,
Children: Nine times four is 36. Here comes a baby buffalo
Bob: That's good, that's ten! And ten times four, you know, is 40...
Eleven coyotes...
Children: Eleven times four
Bob: ...went sneaking across the prairie floor. On all of their legs...
Children: ...equals 44.
Bob: Now twelve times four is as high as we go
Children: Twelve times four is 48
Bob: But there were so very, very, many, many more animals standing there by the gate...
(with children) ...but we'd have to use a pencil if we counted them all And we really had fun and we saw every one
Leon Mobley, Bernadette Yao, David Albercio, Ann Messer, Nina Lillie: A bear, a cougar, a jackal, a yak, a fox...
Children: (singing) ...some deer, and a sweet giraffe
Bob: And I can't remember how many, many more
(with children) ...but we multiplied them all by four and some of them thanked us with a roar

Schoolhouse Rock: Math Rock[]

  • The dog from this song plays an important role in one of the games. In his game, the player must move him around to coral animals into specific pens based on their numbers. After 3 rounds, the dog will join Lucky Seven Sampson's band as the singer.

(Constellation cameo appearance)[]

  • The 4 Legged Zoo makes a cameo appearance as a constellation.




TRIVIA: The "prairie floor" the coyotes are on is clearly a desert floor.

The 4 Legged Zoo constellation cameo
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