All About Ducks: A Unit Study On Ducks

 

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Spring is here so let's talk about ducks!

My online Pre-K and Kindergarten class talked about and explored duck this month of February. We had fun, sang and danced a lot even if we were only seeing each other on our screens. Here's the lesson plan:

Parent Communication

I send out a one page announcement of the books and art works that we will be using as well as some skills to be focused on.

Playlist

An All About Ducks (and more) playlist is on my Spotify. I use them for circle Time and music and movement breaks. We stand to sing and dance in front of our laptops. The parents sometimes join in - even if they can't bee seen in view. 

Read A Loud Books On YouTube

Click to go to the read aloud book on YouTube.

Make Way For Ducklings

The Chick and The Duckling

The Ugly Duckling

The Story of Ping

After the children listen to a story, we go over the pages of the book and let then re-tell the story. Somewhat like narration - what we (my son and I) do after a read aloud or independent reading in our Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

The children take turns in the retelling but sometimes, they talk at the same time.

Suggested Children's Books

Play Based Activities 

I have a Pinterest board full of play based ideas.

Field Work

We went to a park with a man-made lake and where ducks lived. I let the children observe and describe the ducks as their parents jotted down all their responses. It was short and quick because of the prevalent restrictions on gatherings and we really had to follow the social distancing protocols but the children enjoyed watching the ducks and had plenty of observations.

Making It Emergent and Child Centered

In order to encourage investigation and deeper thinking, and since I am limited to interacting with the children online, the parents were the ones who engaged in deeper conversations about ducks and provided extension activities. I am amazed on how the parents of these children stepped up to be their child's educator. 

Here are some suggestions on how to investigate further:

I have tried some of these routines in the physical classroom back when I was teaching in the classroom. 

1. Observe ducks in their natural habitat and let your child ask as many questions as they want. You can answer some questions or you can ask them to look and observe some more until they figure it out. Then ask them, "What do you want to find out more?"

2. Use one play based activity and prompt the to wonder about one thing like lyrics of a song or words in a poem or finger play, the color of their toy ducks versus the color of ducks in a photograph.

Then investigate with them using books, photos on the internet or even YouTube videos. Let them draw or write their discovery.

Numeracy and Reading Skills

I have included math and early reading skills activities in my All About Ducks pack. But of course, I would encourage you to use less worksheets and more hands on activities. 

You may want to sing or recite the 5 Little Ducks song and teach the concept of subtraction. I do not use the words minus and equals yet. This can also be used to learn a few Dolch Pre-K and Kindergarten sight words. You can write down 2-4 words from the poem such as one, two, little and then add a new word. Show the words one at a time and say it with your child a couple of times. I like to put up poems and songs on the wall for my son to see. Nowadays, its usually on the wall near his place on the dining table. This encourages him to look at the words and try to decode it with the reading level he is on. Children who are read to everyday have wider vocabularies and will be able to use those to decode words.

We do syllabication and rhyming games in class too. I will share more in my next lesson plan post.

Extension Activities and Other Resources

Young children are really very curious. By the time they are 4 they would be asking so many questions that it may feel like a chore to answer all of them. My usual answer is, lets find out - later (or now) This as you might have guessed is already an extended activity. 

You may want to look for more books about ducks. Talk about some of the ideas there and ask more questions! I would like to encourage you to make extension activities as open ended as possible. It ay be block play, water play, pretend play or small world play. For arts and crafts, you may want to leave a box with assorted materials out so your little on can explore. Of course you can put out yellow paper and feathers, and let your child figure out how he/she can make a duck. or blue paper, grass cuttings, plastic toy ducks to create a pond for small world play. 

I will add more ideas to this lesson. Please check back once in a while.