Duck Crafts and Learning Activities for Kids

Crafts and Learning Activities Relating to Ducks

Duck Paper Plate Craft

What you will need: Small lunch-size paper plates, and dinner-size paper plates for the large bird, paint, glue gun or stapler, feathers, and eyes.

What to do:

1. To make the smaller ducks use the small paper plates. To make the larger duck use larger plates.

2. Fold a paper plate in half and cut it in half.

3. To make the head roll one half of the plate into a cone shape overlapping the sides about 1/3 of the plate. Glue the cut side closed.

4. To make the body roll the other half of the paper plate into a cone shape overlapping the side only about one inch at the edge. Glue the cone closed on the cut edge. Fold the tip of the cone down about 1/2" and glue the head to the folded tip.

5. Cut wings and feet from another paper plate and glue them to the body as shown in the picture.

6. Paint the paper plate ducks and glue on eyes. To finish glue feathers to the top of the heads.

7. Make the larger duck the same way except use larger plates.

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Activities:

1. Make five little ducks and one mother duck and use them as puppets to act out the "Five Little Ducks" song.

2. Make at least two little ducks and hide a plastic egg under one of the ducks, mix up the ducks and have your child try to guess which duck has the egg.

7. Is it a Duck or a Goose? - Visit a local park and observe the ducks and geese. Before you leave research on the Internet the differences between ducks and a geese. Make a list to take with you, and don't forget to take popcorn or dried bread to feed them. "Is it a Duck or Goose?" Printout is available to members.

Note: Geese can be very aggressive and even nip at your legs and ankles so be careful. My daughter found one goose that was especially friendly though. It seemed to enjoy sitting on her lap and kept trying to preen her hair. At one point it put its neck around hers like it was giving her a hug and then tried to climb up on her shoulder.

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Milk Jug Duck Container Craft for Kids

What you will need: Empty plastic milk jug, orange and red craft foam, large googly eyes, hot melt glue, yellow duck tape, yellow spray paint, yellow feathers, and scissors.

What to do:

1. Wash and dry the plastic milk jug. Cut a line from side to side at the top of the jug about one inch below where the jug starts to form the top of the jug as shown in the picture.

2. Cut a one-inch section from the handle so that the top of the jug can be bent back and the mouth opened. Tape the remaining handle together with yellow duck tape so that the mouth stays open.

3. Spray paint the entire jug yellow and let it dry.

4. Cut a duck bill shape and webbed feet from orange craft foam and glue them to the jug as shown.

5. Cut a tongue from red craft foam and glue it to the inside of the mouth.

6. To finish glue on yellow feathers for wings and a tail. Tape feathers to the top of the jug with yellow duck tape.

Designed by Danielle Warvel

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Quill Pen Craft

Before pencils and pens were invented quill pens were used. People had to make their own pens from the quills of ducks and other birds. Go to http://www.regia.org/quills.htm for directions on how to make a quill pen. We bought big dyed feathers from Oriental Trading Company, and a bottle of India ink from the craft store and it worked great. Don't worry too much about cutting the quill correctly. Just cutting off the end at an angle works pretty well. If you have young children don't use the India ink because it does not come out of your clothes. Use watered down paint instead.

Quill Pen Activities

Write a letter to your friend or relative using your quill pen. Seal it with a wax seal like they did in medieval times to make sure no one read important documents except the intended recipient.

Painting with feathers

Tie several feathers together to make a paintbrush. Paint a picture using your new brush. Experiment with other types of brushes. You can use grass, and other items you find around the house.

Hatch Your Own Duckling

Check with your local zoo to see if they have duck eggs that you can hatch and then return to the zoo. Your children will learn more than you can imagine by actually seeing how the egg and duckling develops. Have your child keep a journal about his or her experience.

Lucky Duck Paper Plate Craft for Kids

What you will need: Four dinner-sized paper plates for each duck (heavy duty is best, but the cheap ones will work), 1 snack size paper plate, orange, and yellow or white paint, hot melt glue gun or stapler, school glue, card stock, scissors, and black markers.

1. Print out the pattern for the feet, wings, and bill and cut them out. Place the feet pattern on a paper plate so that the web part of the feet are on the outer edge of the paper plate. Trace the feet pattern twice and then cut the feet out. Place the wing pattern a paper plate so that the scalloped edge is at the edge of the plate. Trace the pattern. Turn the pattern over and place it at the edge of the paper plate again, trace it, and then cut the wings out. Place the bill pattern on the paper plate so that the part connected to the head is at the edge of the paper plate. Trace the pattern and then trace it again. Cut out the bill.

2. Place a dinner size paper plate, right side up, on the table. Decide where you want the wings and feet. Staple or glue them to the top of the paper plate. (See picture.) Place another dinner-sized paper plate upside down on top of the right side up paper plate and glue or staple it on top of the plate with the feet and wings.

3. To make the head fold a snack size paper plate in half and glue it to the body of the duck as shown.

4. Paint the feet and bill orange. Paint the body and head yellow or white and let them dry.

5. Glue the bill to the head as shown in the picture.

6. Draw eyes on a piece of card stock, cut them out and glue them to the head.

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Creative writing - This is a great book to demonstrate repetition in writing. Your children can write their own pages to add to the story. Let them pick an animal and decide what it thought after saying hello to Duck. Have them draw a picture illustrating their own page.

Here is an example my daughter wrote. "Then Duck rode, no-hands, past Armadillo. "Hello, Armadillo," said Duck. "Hello," said Armadillo, but what he thought was "He needs a helmet ".

Art - This is a great book to demonstrate perspective in drawing. We see the duck on a bike drawn from every perspective imaginable. Study the pictures in the book and discuss with your child from which direction the reader is viewing the duck. Set up a 3D duck. You can use a stuffed animal, decoy, rubber duck, or the paper plate duck craft above. Practice drawing the duck from different perspectives. If you have difficulty drawing it, take pictures of the duck first and draw the pictures from the photographs.

Vocabulary Review Game - This game is played like the Chinese tile game. Write the vocabulary words and review words on pieces of 4" x 2" sheets of paper. Pile the pieces of paper up with some covering each other. The object of the game is to uncover all the vocabulary words by saying them correctly. If a child says the word correctly, he can pick up the piece of paper. He can only say the words that are all the way uncovered.

Free Sample Lessons from
The Resource Room

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Scaredy Cat
Daniel in the Lion's Den