Five Little Ducks

Word Awareness Five Little Ducks

Objective

Students will delete a target word from a song or chant .

Overview

Using a repetitive song or chant, the teacher guides children to delete a target word each time it occurs in the song or chant . The teacher uses a gesture to signal the omission .

Materials

a variety of repetitive chants or songs, such as “Five Little Ducks”

Procedure 1. Teach the song “Five Little Ducks” (share a book version if you have it), and make sure children know it well . Several different versions of the song can also be found online . Chant the lyrics if you prefer . 2. Sing the song without the word ducks . Instead, put your hand over your mouth each time the word should be sung as a visual and kinesthetic reminder that a word has been omitted . Invite children to join you . Note: To avoid confusion, if you typically use other hand motions in this chant, limit these during this activity . 3. Repeat the song with the target deletion several times until children can do it successfully . 4. Sing it again, and choose a different word to omit . Words that are used repeatedly, such as hills, mother, and back, are good choices . 5. Have children suggest a word to delete . Differentiate or Extend ▲ An alternative to holding hands over mouths is to provide each child with a tongue depressor on which a picture of a duck is glued or attached . Each time the word ducks is about to be sung, have children hold the duck image in the air instead of saying the word . You might provide children with images of hills, a mother, and returning ducks . Use the appropriate image given the word you choose to delete . ▲ Rather than delete a word, have the children substitute a word . For example, sing about five little children or five little puppies going far away . Invite the children to suggest substitutions for other repeated words . ▲ Play this deletion game with other chants or songs children know . The table on the following page displays a list of several popular chants and songs in which words are used repeatedly . Melodies and lyrics can also be found on the internet . School-Home Connection Encourage children to share the song with their families . Suggest that they teach family members and friends how to delete a word sample samplefrom the song .

Word Awareness

Other Chants, Songs, and Rhymes Chant Word Repetition

“The Bear Went Over the Mountain” (Wells 1998) bear, mountain, see, other, side “The Wheels on the Bus” (Zelinsky 2000) wheels, bus, round, town, swish, doors, open, shut, horn, beep “It’s a Small World” (Sherman and Sherman 1965) world, share, small, all “Mr. Sun” (Raffi 1996) Mister, golden, sun, me, shine

Five Little Ducks (cont.) Five Little Ducks Five little ducks went out one day Over the hills and far away. Mother Duck said, “Quack, quack, quack quack.” But only four little ducks came back. (repeat verse with four little ducks, three little ducks, and so on, until the last verse) Sad Mother Duck went out one day Over the hills and far away. Mother Duck said, “Quack, quack, quack quack.” And all the five little ducks came back! sample