Thursday, September 26, 2013

Make Way For Ducklings

Title: Make way for Ducklings
Author/Illustrator: Robert McCloskey

Summary: Parents need the right place for raising their families, although these duck parents have to negotiate a busy city to care for their young.


This month we did many things related to Make Way For Ducklings including field trips, experiments and artwork. Lily and Aj enjoyed reading this book and its definitely one of their favorites.

Social Studies: Art, Geography-Boston, Massachusetts
We found Boston Massachusetts on our map and placed our story disk on it. Even though we were unable to go to The Boston Public Garden and Beacon Hill we have been their before. We decided to look up pictures of boston on the internet.We also read a few books on Boston. Lily and Aj did go to the MFA this month where they took an Art Class and made a journal.



Social Studies: History- Finding clues to the past
We Looked at the book to find clues to the past. In searching the illustrations we found unusual looking baby carriages, tricycles and old fashioned bicycles. The cars and clothing in the story look different from todays. We talked about how the objects of today will always look familiar to them since they grew up with them. Lily and Aj now understand how old fashion objects seem natural to their grandparents because they grew up with these objects.

We visited an antique store and saw an old fashion baby carriage and a tricycle. Lily and Aj compared and contrasted the differences and similarities in the way these items are today.



Art: Caldecott Medal, collage
We Discussed what a Caldecott medal means. Lily and Aj learned it was named after a nineteenth century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott.They also learned it is given yearly to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. We then talked about why Make Way For Ducklings deserved the medal.

Lily an Aj made duck collages with construction paper too!


Language Arts: Alphabetical order, Copy work
It is important to learn about putting words in alphabetical order. We used the First letter in each name of the ducklings to practice. Lily and Aj did a great job!


Lily copied a page from the book in her best handwriting.



Science: Ducks, Food Chain
Learning about ducks was a fun and interesting topic to cover this month. We read tons of books about ducks, did some experiments, and a couple work sheets.

The first experiment we conducted was to prove why ducks don't get wet. We discovered through our observations and predictions made that ducks must preen their feathers throughout the day to keep their feathers covered in oil. While we were making observations we noticed how the water rolled right off the oily feathers! Then we came to the conclusion that that is why ducks don't get wet! We did this experiment using paper bags, oil, water and droppers.



The second experiment we did was the naked egg! A naked egg is an egg that has had the shell dissolved so you can see the membrane. We used a couple eggs, white vinegar and a cup.

Day 1- We put eggs in cup with vinegar. They started to bubble right way

Day 2- We saw the shell coming off and floating to the top.

Day 3- We washed off the eggs and they were translucent. We held them and talked about them. Aj was upset when he dropped his egg but it gave us the opportunity to see the inside of the egg.

Day 4- We added food coloring on day 3 and saw what happened to the egg on Day 4. It got much bigger and turned bright red. We then broke the egg to see what was on the inside and how the membrane felt!


Lily and Aj also did worksheets on putting in order the life cycle of a duck and they matched different birds to their nests.


Food Chain- In the book Make My For Ducklings Mrs Mallard didn't want to live anywhere there where foxes and turtles. She knew that ducks were lower on the food chain. Lily and Aj learned about the food chain and the three kind of living things. (producers, consumers and decomposers) They made their own food chain!


Books we read-


Field Trips- We went to Roger Williams Park and Zoo and Fall River Heritage State Park.

Roger Williams Park and Zoo- This trip really was a great trip that coinsided with the book Make way for ducklings. We got to see animals in their natural habitat and talk about the food chain. We also rode swan boats and saw mallards swimming in a pond.


Fall River Heritage State Park- We got to feed Swans, Mallards and Canadian Geese.


Mathematics: counting, calendar skills
Lily and Aj worked on counting by 8's and they did a Duck Math worksheet. They also practiced the months of the year and put the days of the week in order.



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