RIC-20938 Early years Fairytales - Ugly Duckling

Cross-curricular activities
Society and environment
• Swans build a nest in which to lay their eggs. Look at
images of swans’ nests and use large wooden blocks to
construct similar nests. Talk about other animal homes
and their names—burrow, den, lair, hutch, pond, hive,
cocoon, kennel, stable etc.
• Ask the children to relate personal experiences relating
to swans or ducks. Ask the children where they went to
see the swans and/or ducks, what the event was and
what happened. Encourage them to describe the birds’
feet, feathers, colour, shape and size. The children may
wish to draw or write about the experience for a class
book.
• The ugly duckling’s was the last, and largest, egg to
hatch. This means he was the youngest in the family.
Ask the children about their position in the family. Are
they the oldest/youngest/only/middle? Encourage the
children to find out how much they weighed at birth
and, if possible, bring in a baby photo of themselves
and their favourite baby toy. They may also be able to
find out the exact time they ‘hatched’.
• Swans eat mostly underwater vegetation (such as
roots, tubers, stems and leaves), but in winter they
also eat grass or grains. Occasionally, they may also
eat insects and some aquatic animals. Talk about how
swans get the underwater food. Some wildlife parks
provide specially prepared bags of grain for visitors
to buy to feed to ducks or swans. If possible, let the
children examine some.
• Sequence pictures in the correct order to show the
progression from egg to adult swan. Refer to page 72.
Health and physical education
• Hold an egg-and-spoon race using plastic or hard-boiled
eggs. Have the children walk, run or waddle to a designated
spot while balancing the egg on the spoon.
• Teach the children this skipping rope rhyme (starting
with ‘d’) which they can use to play games within the
playground: ‘Dum-dum-dodo’. Catch me if you can, I can
jump better than can’. Select a child to jump while
the verse is being recited. Then the named person enters
the rope and selects someone else.
• Play the game ‘Duck, duck, goose’ but change the words to
‘Duck, duck, swan’. Refer to for instructions to
how to play.
• Create an obstacle course representing the major events in
the story in order: Provide hoops for the children to ‘waddle’
around in like ducks in a nest; lay out a large plastic
tarpaulin to swim across on stomachs; set up witch’s hats
(marshy area) to run through; cover adult-sized chairs
with a blanket as the cottage to creep through; provide a
balance beam to walk across (or balance flat on the back)
to represent the frozen lake; provide a triangular climbing
frame to traverse (for the farmer’s hut); provide a balancing
board representing the cold, hard winter; and, finally, set
up swings to ‘fly high’ like a swan.
• Provide your children with eggs cooked in different
ways (hard-boiled, scrambled, poached, fried etc.)
and let them taste the difference and state their
preference.
• Find images of cygnets (baby swans) and ducklings
from internet or book resources and ask: ‘Are the
cygnets ugly?’ Hopefully, the answer will be ‘No’.
The children should then look at the ducklings and
answer a similar question: ‘Are the ducklings ugly?’
Ask the children why the other animals might have
teased and bullied him. Lead them to the notion
that he was ‘different’. Discuss how wrong it is to
tease and bully others just because they may look
different.
• After reading the story, talk about its main message:
that everyone is special. Talk about how mean the
other ducklings were, then discuss some of the
nice things they could have said instead. Discuss
how important words are. Create and write down or
memorise some nice things the children can say to
each other.
64 Early years themes—Fairytales—The ugly duckling www.ricpublications.com.au – R.I.C. Publications ®