Pond Month: Duck, Duck, Goose!

This week we are learning about ducks and geese (and I threw in a few other water birds just for comparison too).

Day 1: Ducks
We watched some videos on ducks so the girls got a good look at what different ducks look like.  Arkive.com is a great website with lots of videos of animals in the wild.  They are not documentary type videos (i.e. no one is talking or telling you anything about the animals), but they are very good for showing how an animal acts in its natural environment.  We also watched some silly videos like the "Duck Song" - it's on youtube.com, there are 3 of them in total and they are kind of cute little joke songs about a duck.  My eldest was singing them ALL DAY - so be prepared, the song is catchy.  We also had fun waddling around like ducks to the songs - tuckered them out real good so they were prepped to sit down a bit and listen during story time!

After the videos we read "Ducks Don't Get Wet" by Augusta Goldin.  It tells a bit about ducks and centers mainly around how ducks preen themselves so that their feathers will be waterproof.  I added a few tidbits of information on ducks as we read, then we did our science time!

This is a close-up of Abby's feather repelling the water.

This science experiment was so much fun!  To do it you'll need:

• paper (colored or white is fine, we used a paper bag)
• scissors
• about 1/4 cup oil in a small dish/cup
• paintbrush
• spray bottle or cup of water

First you cut the paper into feather shapes.  I used a brown paper bag since most of the ducks my kids saw in the books and videos were mallards and the female has brown feathers.

I let the girls color designs on their feathers with marker, but found out at the end that if you use too much marker (like Serenity did) then the oil wont stick to the paper and the experiment doesn't work.

 

Next, paint the "feathers" with the oil.  I told my girls the paintbrushes were like duck beaks and reminded them that we were preening our feathers to make them waterproof.  The girls had a lot of fun painting with the oil.

Lastly, once the paper feather is completely coated with the oil, either spray it with the water from a spray bottle or you can dip them in a cup of water.  I showed my girls how a paper feather that hadn't been coated in oil soaked up all the water when dipped, and got all soggy and bent over.

Then I dipped my preened feather in and showed them how the water rolled right off it and the feather didn't get wet!  Then they each got to dip their feathers in the water a few times and tried their hardest to get them wet.

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Day 2: Duck continues...

Today we read more books about ducks, and then I gave them a rundown on the basics of ducks.  Some of the fun facts we learned about ducks were:

• The two primary types of ducks are Dabbling Ducks and Diving Ducks.  
• Dabbling ducks are the ones that feed on the top of the water, they are more buoyant and will forage by upending (sticking their tails in the air so they can reach below the water with their bills).
• Diving Ducks can dive completely underwater and even swim for yards completely submerged to forage for food.
• Ducks have a long wide body with legs that are set somewhat far back. 
• Ducks have a wide flat bill with serrations for grasping and filtering their food.  Ducks don't have real teeth.
• Ducks eat a variety of food (they are omnivores), including water plants, insects, fish, and even small marine animals like shrimp.
• Ducks can live in areas of either fresh or salt water and are found almost everywhere on the planet that there is water.
• The male ducks are called Drakes, and the drakes look different from the female ducks.
• Ducks have scaled legs and webbed feet for swimming.
• Ducks can fly, and when they fly their wings beat very fast so that you can't see them except for a blur in the air.
• Contrary to popular belief, ducks can make a variety of sounds, and only the female will actually quack.
• Ducks spend as much time on land as they do in the water.
• Some ducks will migrate to find better sources of food.

After learning a lot about ducks as we read books and watched more video shorts, we took time to draw a picture of a duck.  I let Abbagail search through the pictures on Google of ducks and pick which picture she liked, then I had her draw it.   I showed her how to pick out the main shapes (like a circle for the heat, oval for the body, and triangle shapes for the bill and feet) and how to modify the basic shapes once she had them on the paper.  After all that her favorite part of her drawing was doing water rings around the duck - go figure!

 
Day 3: Goose!

Today I introduced geese to the girls.  We went to Arkive.com again and I found a lot of video clips on the Canada goose (which actually we have a lot of here right now), and I also showed video of swans and told them a bit about how swans are another water bird similar to ducks and geese.  We have swans that live in the garden at the hospital here on base.  The girls think they are neat and we always have to stop and look if they are out swimming about.

Fun facts about Geese that we learned today:

• Geese have a similar body shape to ducks, broad and long.
• They also have similar bills with serrations for straining water plants.
• Geese are vegetarians and will eat water plants, grain, and even graze in grass fields on land.
• Geese live only near freshwater such as ponds, lakes, and rivers.
• Geese are monogamous, meaning that they take only one mate for their whole life.  Mated pairs are easy to distinguish in a gaggle as they will often stay very close to one another and be very attentive to each other.
• Male & female geese look the same
• Male goose is called a gander, female is generally just called a goose.
• Geese have scaled legs and webbed feet for swimming.
• When geese fly their wings beat slow enough that you can see them with each beat.
• Geese make a variety of sounds including a honk and a hiss.
• Most geese are migratory and will travel from one location to another to find good selections of food. Generally flying southward in the winter (colder) months and then North again in the Summer (warm) months.
• Geese can be very aggressive and will attack humans.  Mated pairs that are nesting are the most dangerous, you should never approach a goose nest, even if it appears unguarded.
• Geese have longer necks than ducks, and their bills are thicker at the tops as well.

I made sure to emphasize some of the ways that ducks and geese are different.  Then we did some reading time and read "My Goose Betsy" by Trudi Braun, which gives interesting information about how geese nest and hatch their young.

A little fun at lunchtime - we made duck quesadillas.

I gave them all more blueberries than that, this was just for the picture effect.  Of course the girls squelched my educational genius by Tahlia requesting a star quesadilla and Serenity demanding that she wanted a bunny rabbit quesadilla... which I obliged of course.  Oh well, I'm sure Abbagail's was educational enough for everyone. ;)

Day 4: Duck, Duck, Goose?

Today we took things a bit easy.  Lots of Dr stuff and I just didn't have the strength for school and getting poked and prodded at the Dr's.  We played some fun Duck Duck Goose! (it was more fun when all their friends got home from school and we could play it with more than 3).  I also read them the last of our library books, surfed the net and found more nature videos of ducks and geese doing what they do in nature.  We even found a few silly ones on youtube with kids showing off their pet ducks and geese.  I let the girls watch a video of a man getting chased by a goose - to re-inforce what I'd taught them the day before about geese being very protective and aggressive if they feel threatened.  I made sure to emphasize how we never ever go near a bird's nest, no matter what kind of bird it is, because they don't like it.

My husband had an early day at work too, and when he came home I'd just lain down for a nap and he let me sleep a few hours, such a blessing!  I didn't realize I was so tired till I woke up 3 hrs later!

Day 5: Quiz time!

Today the only thing we did on ducks and geese was our quiz.  I reviewed everything we learned about ducks and geese, then asked each girl (mostly just Serenity and Abbagail) questions regarding how ducks and geese are the same, then how they are different.  They did really well, even if they didn't pick up on the terminology so much (like they didn't remember omnivore and herbivore, but they could tell me examples of what each animal eats).  I'm satisfied.  Next week - Freshwater Fish! I think I'm going to focus in on bluegill, since I know they are a smaller fish that live in smaller bodies of water.