You have come to the right place if you are looking for fun, engaging and exciting Duck themed activities to do with toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. Our activities are used by teachers, moms, dads, child care providers and more!

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Duck Arts and Crafts

Duckies
Trace a duck shape on a piece of paper and have children glue on different colored feathers onto the duck.

Quacking Duck
Use yellow plastic solo cups. Decorate to look like a duck, cup is upside down. Teacher pokes a small hole in the bottom of the cup. Thread a piece of string through the hole and have it dangle out the bottom of the cup. Knot the top so string will stay. String needs to hang down 8 or 10 inches. tie a small piece of sponge on the end of the string. To make the duck “quack,” moisten the sponge and use the sponge to grab the string, then jerk the sponge pulling it down the string.

Duck Fun
Materials:
Paper (white & orange)
Pencil or marker
White Kleenex
Googly eyes
Glue
Have the children trace their foot on paper and cut it out. When they are done,use shredded tissue and have the children glue it onto the footprint. Add eyes beak and feet for a cute little duck.

Swimming Duck
yellow, blue, white and orange construction paper
scissors and paste
Trace around 1 hand on white paper, cut it out. Cut out a yellow duck body and yellow duck head, orange feet and an orange bill. Glue them on blue paper – using the hand print sideways as the ducks wings. Draw an eye on the duck and water lines around the duck.

Splendid Swan
Materials:
white and blue tempera paint
blue construction paper
flat paintbrush
orange and black felt-tip markers
small sponge
newspaper
Directions:
1. Spread newspaper over the work area.
2. Paint inside of palm, fingers, and thumb with white paint.
3. With fingers together and thumb at a right angle, make a print in the center of a sheet of blue construction paper (thumb pointing up).
4. Make a small dot in the center of the thumb print wit a black marker.
5. Use an orange marker to draw a beak near the top of the thumb print.
6. Dip sponge in blue paint squeeze it dry. Dab blue water around the swan.
Present this as a follow-up activity after reading “The Ugly Duckling.” Help each child write one thing that makes him or her special below the swan print. Display the picture with the title “I’m a Splendid Swan!”

Duck Mask
Cut wings on the side of brown grocery sacks, leaving the top attached. Make a hole for the child’s head. Make a duck beak with orange paper and fold. Let them hold it in their mouths. Hard to quack though!

Paper Plate Duck
Materials needed:
Paper plates, preferably the small white ones
yellow paint, or yellow crayons
some yellow feathers
orange felt
jiggle eyes
Let the kids paint the plate yellow, and let dry. Fold plate in half with the folded edge as the top. Cut out round circles for duck head, glue onto one end of plate, sticking it slightly inside plate near fold. Use one yellow feather on each side of plate for wings, cut out small triangle orange felt shapes, for the beak with rest of felt, cut out web feet for the duck. Place on head the jiggle eyes.

Duck Footprints
Mix Orange and/or yellow paint. Pour in a large pie tin. Place one or two (small) spatulas on top of each color of paint. The children “walk” the spatulas across the paper to make prints. Talk about how the spatulas make a shape like the duck’s webbed feet. (Another time use forks to make chick’s feet.)

Paper Plate Ducks
Give the kids paper plates. Let them decorate the backs of their plates with markers and orange construction paper bills for the ducks mouths. Staple half of a paper plate over the front of each whole paper plate to make a pocket. Let them put in their hands to make their puppets move.

Ducks
Materials:
Construction Paper
Glue
Cornmeal
Draw a Duck on Construction paper and cut out. Apply glue to the inside of the duck shape, and then sprinkle on cornmeal. Let dry and remove the excess meal. Could paint a duck with yellow paint for a duckling and then also paint or glue on feathers for an adult duck.

What about making a sequence game showing how ducks grow.   Start with a picture of a duck egg or duck nest, next picture could be the duckling hatching out of the egg, next photo a newly hatched and still wet duckling, next photo a dry fluffy baby duck,   then another of an older baby and then finally an adult duck.

Buy some of the rubber ducks that float and use them in your sensory table that has water in it.    Or if you want to get messy divide the sensory table into two sides with an area for water and then another area to make a nest and have the kids pretend to hatch duck eggs using plastic Easter eggs. Ahead of time-Use a duck pattern to create several duck shapes from plastic foam trays. Fold stiff pieces of cardboard in half, make a tab on each end to attach to foam cut-out as  a  handle.

Ducks in the Pond Picture
Provide each child with a large sheet of blue construction paper, yellow paint in a shallow dish, and a duck shape. Before you begin, take a minute to review the color yellow and the duck as a farm animal. Next, show the child how to dip a duck into the yellow paint and press it onto the blue paper to make a print. Talk about how the yellow duck looks like it is swimming in a blue pond. Encourage the child to make more ducks in the pond. While the children work, encourage them to share what they like best about ducks.

Duck Travel Book
What You Need:
Yarn
Construction Paper
Any Other Art Materials You Want
What You Do:
Give the children all of the materials and have them make pictures of where they would go and what they would do if they where a duck. You can then string their pictures together and make a duck Travel Book.

Duck Hand
What You Need:
Marker
Paper
Glue
Paint
What You Do:
Trace child’s hand twice onto the paper with the marker. Have the children hold their fingers together and stick their thumb up. Next cut out both hand prints. Glue the two handprints together at the palm. Fold down the thumbs. Now let the children paint the shape as a Duck.

Make Your Own Duck Nest
Provide you students with mud, sticks, grass, leaves, twigs, pine needles, and pebbles. Let you kids create their own bird nest. Later you can talk about why birds use these things in order to keep their eggs warm.

 

Duck Games and Activities

One Talented Bird
Talk to your children about how talented a Duck is. A duck can swim better than most animals while still being able to fly well.

Duck Walk
Have your children pretend to be ducks as they walk somewhere

How Many Eggs
Get a picture of a bird and make a nest. Write a different number on each bird. Let the kids place the correct number of eggs (corresponding numbers) into the birds nest.

Match The Eggs
Get an egg carton and color the inside (where the eggs sit) various colors. Have the children match the colors with those of Easter eggs and sort the eggs

Make Your Own Duck Nest
Provide you students with mud, sticks, grass, leaves, twigs, pine needles, and pebbles. Let you kids create their own duck nest.

Duck Feathers
Collect Duck feathers (or other bird) from the local park or petting zoo. Show your children how the feathers repel water by putting them on the table and squirting a small amount of water on them

Hatch a Bird
Use an incubator to hatch a baby chick (not a duck but hatched the same way). You can order an egg from several Internet sites or ask a local hatchery (most will be happy to help out a school) Do this experiment to get a better understanding of how the oil on ducks feathers help them stay afloat.  Take a dry cotton ball and quickly push it under water.  It quickly get saturated with water and will eventually sink.  Next take a dry cotton ball and cover the surface with oil.  Then quickly push it under water.  It stays afloat much better because the oil keeps the water from saturating.  Ducks bodies are a constant source of oil that they rub around their bodies with their beaks and it helps keep them dry and afloat! We have a duck pond near our school and we visit it if we do the duck.

Feather Pics
We ask the children to pick up as many feathers as possible and we stick that on a duck picture. The children also paint with the feathers, sort them according to size and color.

Sensory Awareness
Playing in colored water/ice cubes with plastic ducks.

Dramatic Play
Children could make a theater and pretend to be the mother duck and 5 little ducks.

Duck Watching
Go to a duck pond and see the ducks. Ducklings generally arrive in May.

Find the Egg Game
Teacher hides an egg while one child covers their eyes or goes out of the room. This child is the Parent Duck. The Parent duck tries to find the egg. All the ducklings (other children) quack softly and more and more loudly as Parent gets closer to where the egg is hidden, When the egg is found choose another Parent Duck and repeat.

Duck, Duck, Goose
Children sitting in a circle. One child walks around the circle touching each child on the head saying saying, “Duck, duck…” The child chooses a person and says “Goose.” That child gets up and chases the other around the circle back to his/her spot where the first child sits down. The second child begins the game again.

Missing Duck Eggs
Put on grass, one egg per child. The children squat down, tucking hands under armpits, as ducks. Have a home base, a nest for the eggs to be returned to. As a duck they cannot use their hands to pick them up but must find other ways to get the egg back to the nest. Kick it with their foot, without standing up, or butting it with head, First one to get a egg back to the nest, is the winner.

 

Duck Recipes and Snacks

Just Ducky
hard boiled egg peeled
slice of cheddar cheese
slices of carrots small pieces of ripe olives.

Directions: Cut ¾ slice from narrow end of egg so that the egg stands. Reserve the slice.  Place egg on plate.  With knife make notches in the rounded side of reserved slice of egg to form a feathered top. Place on duck’s head.

Round out the edges of the slice of cheese to make a duck’s bill.  Place under the egg.  Add carrot eyes and bits of olives for pupils.

 

Duck Songs, Poems and Finger Plays

Duck
Duck in the water, quack, quack, quack!
Soft, white feathers on your back, back, back!
Duck in the water, splash and splish!
Dip in your bill and catch those fish!
Duck out of water, walk on land.
Your webbed feet make it hard to stand!
Waddle with your family, waddle in a pack.
Duck out of water, quack, quack, quack Lucky Duck
Oh it was a bit of luck
That I was born a baby duck
With yellow socks and yellow shoes
That I may go wherever I choose?
Quack, quack, quack quack

Two Little Ducks
Two little ducks. . .sitting on a hill
One named Jack . .. one named Jill
Fly away Jack. . .fly away Jill
Come back Jack. . .come back Jill

Five Little Ducks & Five Little Quail
Five little ducks went out to play (Wiggle five fingers on one hand)
And met five quail that came their way. (Wiggle five fingers on other hand.)
The five little quail went to get a snack (put quail hand behind back.)
And the five little ducks went quack, quack, quack (use hand to form duck bill)

Little Ducks Song
Little ducks go quack, quack, quack
Quack, quack, quack,
quack, quack, quack-
Little ducks go quack, quack, quack
In the springtime.

Five Little Ducks – Finger Puppet Glove
Five little ducks went out to play
over the hills and far away
When mother duck said
Quack, quack, quack!
Only four little ducks came back.
reduce by one until you are down to one left and the last line is
One little duck went out to play
over the hills and far away
When mother duck said
Quack, quack, quack!
five little ducks came running back…

Three Little Ducks That I Once Knew
Three little ducks that I once knew.
A fat one, a skinny one, a yellow one too.
But the one little duck with a feather on his back
He ruled the others with his quack, quack, quack!
Quack, quack, quack.
He ruled the other with his quack, quack, quack.
Down to the meadow they would go.
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble to and fro.
But the one little duck with the feathers on his back.
He led the others with his quack, quack.
Quack, quack, quack.
He led the others with his quack, quack, quack.
Home from the river they would come.
Wibble, wobble, wibble wobble, ho, hum.
But the one little duck with the feather on his back.
He led the others with his quack, quack, quack.
Quack, quack, quack.
He led the others with his quack, quack, quack.

The Little Ducklings
All the little ducklings
Line up in a row.
(Stand up)
Quack, quack, quack,
And away they go.
(Hands and thumbs together with both hands)

They follow their mother,
(put hands behind as a tail waddle
Waddling to and fro.
Quack, quack, quack
And away they go.
(repeat above)

Down to the big pond
Happy as can be. (smile)
Quack, quack, quack
They are full of glee. (repeat)

They jump in the water
(jump up and down)
And bob up and down,
Quack, quack, quack,
they swim all around.
(repeat)

All the little ducklings
(swimming motion)
Swimming far away.
Quack, quack, quack,
They’ll play another day.(repeat)

Five little Ducks
Five little ducks, went out to play (hold up five fingers)
over the hills, and far away, (hold hand to eyebrows)
When the mother duck went “Quack Quack Quack”
(motion “quack” with your hand)
Four little Ducks came waddling back.
(make wings with arms and move elbows up and down)
Continue to count down until there are no little ducks then sing:
No little ducks went out to play,
Over the hills and far away,
When the father duck went “QUACK, QUACK, QUACK”,
Five little ducks came waddling back.

Nursery Rhymes
Christmas is coming,
The geese are getting fat,
Please to put a penny
In the old man’s hat.

If you haven’t got a penny,
A ha’penny will do;
If you haven’t got a ha’penny,
Then God bless you!

Goosey, goosey gander,
Whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my lady’s chamber.
There I met an old man
Who would not say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg
And threw him down the stairs.

Six little ducks
Six little ducks
That I once knew
Fat ones, skinny ones,
Fair ones, too
But the one little duck
With the feather on his back
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

Down to the river
They would go
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble,
To and fro
But the one little duck
With the feather on his back
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

Back from the river
They would come
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble,
Ho, hum, hum
But the one little duck
With the feather on his back
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack
Quack, quack, quack,
Quack, quack, quack
He led the others
With a quack, quack, quack

 

 

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