Ducks

Every year, we hatch chicks and ducks in the classroom.  Chicks are cute and stay small for a long time, but the ducklings are the most fun to watch.  They "imprint" which means that they attach or bond to the first moving thing they see. So the little ducklings will follow me, thinking that I am the "mother".  They run behind me, peeping and calling to me, to make sure that I don't forget them anywhere.  The ducklings also like to swim, so when we put them into water, they splash and dive and preen themselves.

Farmers like ducks too, because they eat insects that pester the cattle, and they love eating the yellow dandelions.  Their favourite food is kernel corn!

The other animals run and hide under cover when it rains, but not ducks. Ducks are made for water, and wherever there is water, there is usually mud.  The ducks go in and out of the water, squishing up the dirt all around, and making wonderful mud.  If you look at their footprints, you will see their webbed feet. This means that they have skin between their toes, which helps them swim.  If you use flippers when you swim, you can go faster and stronger too.

Ducks are kept for their meat and for their eggs.

The male is the drake, the female is a duck, and the baby is a duckling.

There are many stories about ducks, too, and my favourite is "Ping".  Which duck story is your favourite?

So many songs have been written about ducks, because of that great sound they make, "Quack, quack, quack!"  In the pictures below, can you find the "one little duck with the feather in his back"?