Make Way for Ducklings
This week for our Five in a Row (FIAR) studies we read Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. I chose it because we’ve been enjoying watching the webcam of a hawk nest at Cornell University. All three eggs hatched this week and we got to see them in almost every stage of the process. It was amazing! I left the site open on my computer and often we would just sit watching in awe. It seemed like the perfect time for this story! I know I saw this book as a child, but I don’t remember ever reading it. I missed out! Ian and I both enjoyed reading this one over and over throughout the week.
On Wednesday we went to a local park to try to find the mama duck and ducklings Grandma had spotted the day before, but to no avail. Instead we just enjoyed watching the adult ducks and I taught the boys the differences between the males and females. Ian was really disappointed not to see any ducklings, so we prayed that God would give a chance to see some. On Friday morning as I was getting Arianna dressed, it occurred to me that we should try another park that day. The boys were thrilled at the sudden plans (I am NOT a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment type of person) until they found it we were returning to the scene of our unfortunate duck incident back in January. (Elijah still reminds me at least once a week out of the blue, “Mommy, the duck ate my chicken.”) Ian insisted as we drove there, “I do NOT like that park. I don’t EVER want to go there again.” Mean Mommy wasn’t giving in. Thankfully, the ducks and geese were all on their best behavior. The boys relaxed and we enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine along with the cool breeze as we walked along the water’s edge. And lo, and behold…
Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard! Hello, Ducklings! There were only 5, but of course Ian started to call them by name: “Jack! Kack!.. Mack!… Pack!… Quack!” We spent quite a bit of time watching the family before moving on towards the playground for lunch. Needless to say, this is now Ian’s FAVORITE park.
Other things we did at home this week (in addition to many discussions out of the Five in a Row manual (Vol. 2):
- I found lots of ideas from this unit study, including a great collection of “uck” word family activities.
- I also used some of the pages from the lapbook at HomeSchoolShare to do one of the math activities in the manual.
- We watched the Reading Rainbow episode “Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones,” which talks about other animals that lay eggs. Ian was so fascinated and delighted in telling all about how turtles lay eggs too!
- For our mapping activity, we went on a Google Lit Trip, which was fabulous! It was so much fun to see Boston on the map and “travel” around the city to all the places in the book with real pictures of what it looks like today. (We first watched it on YouTube, but the pace was a little quick for me.) Someday I hope we’ll make it to Boston to see the Public Garden in person!
To see what other FIAR books we’ve rowed, see my “Index of FIAR Posts.” Also, a great place to see what other people have done with FIAR books is the FIAR Blog Roll at Delightful Learning.