Boston Inspired Reads

My husband and I are planning a week long trip to Boston at the end of the summer.  During my research for the trip, I discovered several children's books that are set in the great city of Boston.






First, we have the classic Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.  The image shown here is the audio version.  Winner of the 1942 Caldecott Medal, this is the story of a mallard family trying to find the perfect home in the Boston Public Garden.  We are planning on visiting the duck statues there (shown below). Homeschool Share has a great BINGO game available along with several other fun and educational activities. There is a fun art project available from Scholastic. There are lots of activity ideas available from Live Oak Media. Wondersome StoryTime provides a great plan for a wonderful storytime or circle time lesson plan.  And for all you preschool teachers, Hubbard's Cupboard has a great duck/egg unit that incorporates this great book.

Another book I discovered, was The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White, which has also been made into a movie. This is the story of a swan who was born without a voice and learns to play a trumpet to create a voice.  After reading this story we will be sure to check out the Swan Boat Rides when we are in the Boston area. The Internet is full of great teaching or storytime activities that go along with this book. ABC Teach has lots of printables that go along with this book. Multinomah Library provides a discussion guide to use with elementary students. Ethemes provides a list of links for additional activity suggestions.

The third Boston related children's book is Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, which was also made into a movie.  This book is the 1944 Newbery Medal winner and is about the events in Boston leading up to the Revolution. On this Teacher Cyberguide, they provide all sorts of activity suggestions that go along with this award winning title. EdHelper also has a great literature unit available. Teacher Vision has a reader's theater script that would be a great addition to any program or unit on this book.

Picture Book Program

Theme: Ducks

Age Level: Preschool

Appropriateness: The following books and activities are geared towards preschool aged children. The stories are simple enough for them to understand and enjoy. The activities planned are aimed at the skill levels of preschool aged children. The activities planned are also ones that preschool aged children would enjoy participating in.

Books:

• Gibbons, Gail. Ducks! Illustrated by the author. New York: Holiday House, 2001.
  
• Hoff, Syd. Duncan the Dancing Duck. Illustrated by the author. New York, N.Y: Clarion, 1994.
  
• McCloskey, Robert. Make Way for Ducklings. Illustrated by the author. New York: Viking Press, 1941.
  
• Root, Phyllis. One Duck Stuck. Illustrations by Jane Chapman. Cambridge, Mass: Candlewick Press, 1998.
  
• Rosenthal, Amy K. and Lichtenheld, Tom. Duck! Rabbit! Illustrated by the authors. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2009.
  

Extension Ideas:

• Art
  
  • Paper Plate Duck Craft
    
    • Detailed instructions and picture at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/animals/duck/
      
    • Paint a paper plate yellow
      
    • Have children trace their hands on yellow paper and cut out.
      
    • Give children a variety of art materials to assemble their duck (crayons, markers, glue, tape, a variety of colors of paper)
      
    • They can fold the plate in half and attach the handprints to the plate to be the tail feathers
      
    • They can use the art materials supplied to finish their duck (head, facial features and feet.
      
• Music
  
  • Singing and Dancing
    
    • "Six Little Ducks" from Raffi CD The Singable Songs Collection
      
    • Listen to the song on CD and sing along.
      
    • Act out the motions of the duck.
      
    • Have the children join in on the quack, quack, quack part.
      
• Drama
  
  • Have children make duck beaks to wear.
    
  • Pretend to be ducks.
    
  • Waddle like ducks and quack like ducks.
    
• Science
  
  • Provide the children with real duck feathers for exploration.
    
  • Demonstrate how water rolls of the feathers by squirting the feathers with water.
    
  • You could also provide a tub of water with rubber ducks and try to dunk the ducks with the squirt bottles.
    
• Math
  
  • Play a number or shape matching game with paper cut duck shapes.