Quack, quack

Even the youngest children enjoy pretending to make duck noises and singing 'Five little ducks', so why not enhance this early interest with a fascinating project on ducks.

Start the project with a trip to see ducks at a local pond, park or bird sanctuary, but avoid feeding them. Outings to feed the ducks may be a regular event for young children and their families, but bread is not a good food source for ducks. They need a diet rich in green foods, rather than our leftover stale cake and bread, and feeding ducks regularly has the added problem of leaving the birds overly socialised and so more vulnerable to danger.

As with all group outings, especially near water, ensure that you have a ratio of one adult to two children and adhere to safety guidelines at all times. Invite parents to join you and maintain the ratios - enlist the help of parents where necessary.

The suggested activities provide a good balance of stimulating learning opportunities across all six areas of the curriculum.

Approach

The Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (page 11) emphasises the importance of providing children with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning opportunities. This project, therefore:

* identifies adult-led activities, to introduce or develop children's understanding of the topic through stimulating, meaningful experiences which offer challenge

* suggests ways to enhance areas of core provision, to consolidate children's learning about the theme. It is the practitioners' role to make daily observations of children's learning which inform individual child profiles and future planning. Children should be encouraged to use the resources to support their own learning. This means that the possible learning outcomes will be wide-ranging and varied

* advocates that settings should be organised and resourced using a 'workshop' approach so that children can access resources autonomously and independently.

Adult-led activity

Feathered friends

Plan a trip to observe and record ducks in their natural habitat.

Key learning intentions

To consider the consequences of their words and actions for themselves and others

To find out about, and identify, some features of living things, objects and events they observe

To move with confidence, imagination and in safety

Adult:child ratio 1:2

Resources

* children's own backpacks and snacks * digital cameras * binoculars * clipboards and pencils

Preparation

* Enlist enough volunteers, agree a venue and organise transport for the trip.

* Organise a meeting ahead of the trip to reinforce simple rules and expectations of how the children should behave outdoors.

* Give parents a checklist of items that the children will need, such as a snack, backpack and suitable clothing.

Activity content

* Talk to the children about what they expect to see on the visit. Explain that they will be looking out for different kinds of ducks, taking photographs, drawing pictures and writing notes to share on their return.

* On reaching the site, reinforce the need to walk quietly or to stand very still and not too near the edge of the water. Encourage the children to observe the ducks with both with the naked eye and binoculars, and to talk about their key features, such as webbed feet and bills.

* During snacktime, talk about the ducks that the children have seen. What noise did they make? How did they move? Explain how some ducks feed by 'dabbling' or tipping themselves tail-up in the water to find weed. Did they spot any ducks feeding? Talk about how a duck's outer feathers are waterproof because they have a coating of oil, but that the feathers underneath are soft to keep the duck warm. Introduce the words 'waddle' and 'quack'.

* Spend the remaining time observing and recording ducks, by taking photographs, drawing pictures and writing notes.

Extended learning

Key vocabulary

Duck, bill, tail, feathers, soft, oily, weed, brown, pattern, webbed feet, dabbling, waddling, quack

Questions to ask

* How does a duck move in the water? How does it move along the ground?

* How does a duck find food?

* How does a duck manage to stay dry in the water?

* Which duck do you like best? Why?

Extension ideas

* Use the photographs taken and the children's drawings and notes to make a book or display entitled 'Finding out about ducks'.

* Visit websites to look for photographs and facts about ducks to identify those observed on the outing and to enhance knowledge. Some good examples can be found on: www.liveducks.com www.kiddyhouse.com www.rspb.org.uk/youth

* Develop opportunities for child-initiated investigation with unusual 'duck' resources. (Funky ducks that change colour in water and a duck-shaped thermometer that beeps in hot water can be obtained from www.gizoo.co.uk, and the Early Learning Centre stocks clockwork ducks that swim.)

Child-initiated

Water play

Additional resources and adult support

* Supply children with plastic ducks of different sizes, small-world pond creatures, water, gravel, small stones and real or plastic pondweed to create an outdoor duck pond in a builder's tray.

* Invite the children to help you colour the water in a water tray with blue and green food colouring to represent pond water. Supply a range of plastic and wooden ducks, stones and pebbles.

* Display laminated pictures of ducks on screens in the water area and draw children's attention to these as they are playing.

* Supply additional resources that the child may want as their play develops.

Play possibilities

* Using outdoor resources to make up duck stories.

* Discovering more about pond life by creating an outdoor habitat for model ducks and pond creatures.

* Using additional water tray resources to investigate floating and sinking.

* Exploring the features of ducks by referring to displays and handling models.

* Using additional resources to follow their own interests - for example, investigating the properties of water.

Possible learning outcomes

Is confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group

Begins to use talk to pretend imaginary situations

Finds out about and identifies some features of living things

Introduces a storyline or narrative into their play

Adult-led

Nesting time

Investigate the laying and hatching of eggs through It's Quacking Time by Martin Waddell.

Resources

* It's Quacking Time by Martin Waddell (Walker Books) * pictures of ducks * non-fiction books about ducks including pictures of nests and eggs * natural materials, such as twigs, feathers, straw and dry grass * toy ducks and eggs

Adult:child ratio 1:6

Activity content

* Share the story with the children and ask questions about the nest-building and how the ducks feel about the egg - the story is wonderful for the way it tracks the parents' excitement and the duckling's confusion about what is to emerge from the egg.

* Look at the pictures of ducks and nests, and talk about what they are made of and how they are made.

* Make available all the nest-building materials to the children. Allow them to choose the resources independently to make their own nests.

* Encourage the children to add ducks and eggs to their nests when complete.

Extended learning

Key vocabulary

Duck, feathers, nest twigs, and words to describe the characters' emotions in the story such as happy, confused, worried, delighted, surprised Questions to ask

* What did the mummy duck do?

* How did the big ducks feel about the egg?

* How did the little duck feel before the 'baby' arrived? And afterwards? Why do you think he felt that way?

* How did you feel when your baby brother/sister arrived?

* Do you think all the ducks in the story hatched from eggs?

* Who made the nest? How do you think she made it? How would you build a nest?

Extension ideas

* Leave the nests on display and encourage the children to use them to re-enact the story and to include in their imaginary play.

* Provide alongside the nests a display of books about ducks and a table with clay, feathers, eggs and tools for making textures to represent feathers. The children may wish to make models of ducks, roll the clay into egg shapes or make imprints of feathers in the clay.

* Encourage the children to refer to the books when making their models and provide assistance as appropriate.

Adult-led activity

Five little ducks

Share the rhyme 'Five little ducks'.

Key learning intentions

To listen to favourite songs and join in with repeated refrains, anticipating key events and important phrases

To use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems

To use their imagination in music, dance, imaginative and role play

Adult:child ratio 1:6

Resources

* A copy of 'Five little ducks' (it is included in the anthology This Little Puffin compiled by Elizabeth Matterson) * a large strip of blue material Activity content

* Sing the song with the children, encouraging them to join in with finger and arm actions.

* Suggest that the children take on the roles of the characters in the rhyme, choosing one child to be the mother duck.

* Roll out the strip of blue material and invite the children to act out the rhyme as they sing it. When mother duck calls 'Quack, quack, quack, quack', tap one of the ducklings on the shoulder as a signal to sit down while the rest waddle back to their mother.

* Count how many ducklings have returned and how many are still 'far away'.

* Continue to sing the song, while counting the ducklings that are in the river and 'far away' at the end of each verse.

* Encourage the children to recall the ducks they have watched on their outing and to try to move like them. Talk about how mother duck felt when she was losing her ducklings.

* Leave the resources in place for children to initiate their own ideas.

Extended learning

Key vocabulary

Number names to five, more, fewer, duck, duckling, pond, far, away, over

Questions to ask

Ask questions to present children with simple mathematical problems, such as:

* There are two ducklings on the pond and three far away. How many are there all together?

* There are only four ducklings on the pond. How many are lost?

* How does mother duck feel when her ducklings are missing? What does she do? What happens then?

Extension ideas

* Supply large apparatus outdoors such as tunnels and benches for children to initiate their own duckling journeys.

* Invite the children to transform the rhyme into a story by inventing a series of events for the ducklings to encounter on their journey. Introduce dialogue for the characters.

* Provide in the music area a 'Five little ducks' rhyme bag containing a laminated copy of the rhyme, a plastic mother duck, five ducklings, a round blue fabric pond, number cards from 1 to 5 and a recording of the rhyme.

You could also provide other soft-toy ducks, duck finger puppets or a yellow glove marked with duckling faces on the ends of the fingers for the children to use as they sing or listen to the rhyme.

Books

* The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter (Frederick Warne)

* The Ugly Duckling by Hans C Andersen (Ladybird 'Read it yourself' series)

* Farmer Duck written by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books)

* The 'Duck' series by Jez Alborough (Picture Lions)

* Ten Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle (Harper Collins)

* Percy's Friends the Ducks by Nick Butterworth (Collins) Information books

* A New Duck: My first look at the life-cycle of a bird by Pamela Hickman (Kids Can Press)

* Duck (Read and learn: Life cycles) by Richard Pilsbury (Raintree Publishers)