A Big Day for Ducklings! Lesson Plan

Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Children will explore what baby ducklings need to survive their first

day at the pond.

 

Science Focus:

what baby animals need

 

Page 4 Skill:

using visuals

 

Vocabulary:

dabbling, ducklings, nest, pond, waddle

 

CCSS:

RI.K.1, RI.1.4, L.1.4, SL.K.2

  • Before watching our video It’s a Duck!, ask kids if they know the name for a baby duck. It’s duckling!
  • After watching, ask, “What happens after the ducklings hatch? How do they grow?”
  • Ducklings need warmth, food, and protection to stay alive. Read the magazine together. After you read, ask questions like, “How did the ducklings stay warm?” “How did they stay safe?”
  • Then get kids up and moving like baby animals with our Dance Break video.
  • Finally, do the Show What You Know skill sheet.
  • The pond habitat is full of life! Kids can discover it all in our Pond Find It
  • game.
  • In our Help the Animals Get to the Pond skill sheet, kids hone their fi ne-motor skills by tracing challenging patterns.
Paper ducks on popsicle sticks

Materials: Mama Duck Puppet Template, Duckling Puppet templates, crayons or markers, scissors, craft sticks, tape or glue

  • Split children into small groups. Give each group one set of template, scissors, and markers or crayons. Kids can work together to cut out and color the mama duck and ducklings.
  • Next, tape or glue the mama duck and ducklings to craft sticks to make puppets. For the duckling puppets, kids can write the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on the craft sticks.
  • Let each child in each group take a puppet. Then recite the poem below as groups act it out!

Five little ducks went swimming one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother duck said “Quack quack quack quack”
But only four little ducks came back!
Four little ducks went swimming one day . . .