Ten Little Rubber Ducks
Teaching math with literature pages: 1 2 3 4
Eric Carle's book, "Ten Little Rubber Ducks" is based on a true story about bathtub toys that fell off a container ship and floated to various places.
Eric Carle's delightful tale is another example of his colorful tissue paper collage style. The story begins in the factory where the ducks are made. They are then loaded on a freighter but during stormy weather ten little rubber ducks fall into the ocean and float away.
Try the activities below with your students to help them practice counting sets of ducks and to learn how to use ordinal numbers.
Practice counting
Have the children cut sections of ducks out of the free duck worksheet, glue them to their paper and then print or glue the correct number beside them. The children can then use crayons or felts to add water, plants, or anything they like to their pictures.
Make a counting book
Read Ten Little Rubber Ducks right through on the first day. On the second day read the book and talk about the story and the pictures. On day three, count how many ducks are on each page.
Choose a number and have the children create two or three class books based on "Ten Little Rubber Ducks". In a book called "5 Little Puppy Dogs", for instance, each child can make a page with 5 puppies going to a different place.
As you read the class book over and over, have the children count the five puppies on each page. You do not want the books too long, so vary the number of class books you make depending on the number of children you are working with. In a class of twenty children, have ten children create a book about five puppies, ten children create a book about five kittens, etcetera.
Teach ordinal numbers
Ten Little Rubber Ducks uses ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd....) to describe the ducks and the ordinal numbers are highlighted with bold type on the book's pages. The 10 little rubber ducks meet various animals on their journey and the happy 10th duck meets a mother duck with her brood and follow them to her nest.
Read the book over and over to help the children get used to hearing ordinal numbers. Many young children are very familiar with the terms, "first" and "last" but not too many know how to correctly use the terms, second, third, fourth, etcetera.
Using games to reinforce the concepts of ordinal numbers
Make simple rubber duck puppets with ducks cut out of yellow construction paper, stickers, and popsicle sticks (see picture above). Tape the popsicle sticks high up on the cut out ducks to keep the paper from drooping over.
Musical ducks game
Play games with the ducks to reinforce ordinal numbers. Have five children each hold a different duck puppet and walk around the middle of the carpet. Play music and then turn it off (like musical chairs). You can choose a song the children know and the ones watching from the outside can sing too. When the music is turned off the children with the ducks sit in a row on the carpet and hold their ducks up.
Use pieces of tape on the rug to help the children know where to sit. Every one else chants along with the teacher's guidance (touch each one)... "The duck with the green dots is first, the duck with the orange stars is second, the duck with ...." until you get to the last duck.
Children trade places and five more children get to walk around with the ducks. Increase to six, then seven, then eight, until the children are familiar with the ordinal terms to ten.
Assessing ordinal number sense
Test a child's knowledge of ordinal numbers by lining up five different colored plastic toys and placing them in a row. Tell the child that the toys are running in a race to the plastic map or book or whatever you choose.
Then ask the child to touch the one that is first. Many young children can do this correctly. Then ask the child to touch the fourth one, the fifth one, the second one, etcetera. Do not say them in order. You can quickly see which children have a good understanding of ordinal numbers and which ones need to play with the concept more.
Math table of contents:
Teaching kindergarten & preschool math - how to teach kindergarten and preschool math concepts, sample step-by-step teach measurement, activities and games
Teaching with math manipulatives - how to teach with math manipulatives to help children understand math concepts
Ten steps to teaching with math manipulatives
Best math manipulatives - choose materials that are useful for more than one math concept
Teaching math vocabulary - learn how to teach math vocabulary
Attribute blocks - how to use these math manipulatives for different features: shape, color, size and thickness to help promote logical thinking
Graphing 1 - how to teach graphing to preschool and kindergarten children, includes collecting data and organizing it in a variety of ways
Graphing 2 - more graphing ideas for young children
Measurement - how to find measurement to young children, find opportunities for students to order objects by size, color, shape...
Number Activities - how to provide experiences that build number sense
Number Games - how to improve children's number sense with easy games
Number Skills - what number skills do children need to know?
Pattern 1- how to teach children pattern concepts
Pattern 2 - ideas and games to teach children to recognize, create, copy and extend patterns
Pattern 3 - teach patterning skills to early childhood and preschool students
Sorting and classifying- how to teach children the important skills of sorting, comparing and classifying objects
Symmetry - teach symmetry with games and activities
Classification games to reinforce math vocabulary
Math & Literature Connections - how to combine math and literature, learn how to promote math skills as you share good literature
Ten Apples Up on Top - open-ended math activity with Dr. Suess
10 Little Rubber Ducks - ideas to promote math with this wonderful Eric Carle story
1, 2, 3 to the Zoo - another great Eric Carle book, practice counting, making number sets, ordinal numbers and more
Teach money 1 - skills & activities
Teach money 2 - with games
Teach money 3 - with fundraising projects
