Teachers, do you read the classic book, Make Way for Ducklings, to your students? This book makes such a great read aloud and students always love the sweet story! We like using the story to start a conversation on responsibility and teach a variety of reading strategies. It’s a classic for a reason, after all! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Make Way For Ducklings tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, two ducks. They are looking for a good place to make a nest and raise ducklings. After flying for a long time, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are too tired to keep going and land on an island in Boston’s Public Garden. They enjoy swimming in the water and eating the peanuts people throw from the swan boat. However, when they are almost run over by a bicycle, Mrs. Mallard decides they need someplace new. After flying around the city the land on an island in the river and start to make their nest. Soon after, their eggs hatch and Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are busy caring for their ducklings. When Mr. Mallard leaves to explore the river, Mrs. Mallard stays back and teaches the ducklings.
When it is time to start heading back to the Public Garden to meet Mr. Mallard, Mrs. Mallard teaches her ducklings to walk behind her in a line. They try and cross the street but there are too many cars! Thankfully a police officer comes to stop traffic and let the ducks cross. The family reunited in the pond and decides to live there.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
There are so many different ways you can use Make Way for Ducklings in your classroom. Chances are, whatever skills you are teaching or need to teach can be integrated into this read aloud. We selected the skills and strategies we think the book best lends itself to teaching and listed some of our ideas below.
- Analyze the setting of the story and discuss why it was so important.
- Practice making inferences as you read the book to students.
- Encourage students to rewrite the story from a different point of view.
- Have students write explanations for events that took place in the book.
- Teach a lesson on multiple meaning words.
- Introduce students to irregular verbs.
- Have a class discussion about the importance of responsibility.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
Planning a read aloud for every day of the week is a lot of work and teachers just don’t have enough time in the day. Often times, when schedules are tight, read alouds are the first thing to go. We know how important they are, so we hope these activities make it easier to incorporate more read alouds into your classroom routine.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- The Good Egg by Jory John
- The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
- Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
- Hedgie's Surprise by Jan Brett
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
