Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck Reader Activities

Writing/Language Activities (first grade and up)

1. Basketball players play with basketballs. Writers play with words. In this story, many of the words end in the “k” sound. I wrote it that way for fun. It was a story about a duck, a word that ends in the “k” sound.

Have your students think of more words that end in the “k” sound and add some adventures to the story. Hint: yuck, lick, take, clunk.

2. Or have your students pick other animals and write stories about them. A dog, for example. Can your students write a story about a dog that uses words with the “d” sound or the “g” sound? Hint: dig, dug, drag, big.

Field Trip (first grade and up)

Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck began when I took a walk around the lake in my neighborhood. I saw a duck sitting on the ice of a lake near my home. I wondered about it. Was it cold? Where was its family?

Look for wildlife in your school’s immediate neighborhood.

First check out some simple nature guides from the library. Have the students try to identify the birds and the bugs and the furry creatures. Listen to the bird calls. Watch how the bugs behave. Are the squirrels always the same color? Those are clues that will help identify animals. Birdwatchers like to keep a “life list” of the birds they have seen. Your students can start one, too.

They might also wonder what hardships animals endure. Where do birds go when it pours? What happens to a squirrel if it becomes injured?