Page 1 - Summer Music Lesson 11

Summer Music Lesson 11 Activity: Five Little Ducks (traditional)
The children are sitting in a circle. Place five rubber ducks in the centre. Sing the song acapella and do the following actions. Hold up appropriate number of fingers for first line. Make a wave motion (over the hills) with one arm for second line. Use a hand as mother duck and open and shut fingers for each "quack". Hold up appropriate number of fingers for last line.
Pause after each "Quack, quack, quack, quack" and choose one child to take a duck from the centre (you will need to give them directly to the younger babies). At the end of the last verse all of the ducks are placed back in the centre. The game is repeated until every child has had a turn of holding a duck.
NB: If you need to avoid sharing of props due to social distancing, then perform the actions without the rubber ducks. Instead count out loud how many fingers left at the start of each new verse.
Lyrics
Five little ducks went swimming one day, Over the hills and far away.
The mother duck said,
"Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
But only four little ducks came back. (Four, three, two little ducks...)
One little duck went swimming one day, Over the hills and far away.
The mother duck said,
"Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
But no little ducks came swimming back.
Other Ideas!
No little ducks went swimming one day, Over the hills and far away.
The mother duck said,
"Quack, quack, quack, quack,"
And all five little ducks came back.
For children aged three plus: Choose five children to go into the middle of the circle and pretend to be ducks swimming. You be the mother duck and tap one child on the back as you say “quack, quack, quack, quack”. The chosen child goes and sits in the circle so there are four ducks left swimming. All count how many ducks are left. Repeat until there are no more ducks swimming. Sing the final verse and all the swimming ducks return to the middle of the circle.
NB: If you need to practice social distancing then encourage the ducks to swim on the spot. You can do this by putting down a yellow spot or place mat. Instead of tapping children on the back, you can look them in the eye and do a ‘quack’ action with your hand as you sing “quack, quack, quack, quack” to indicate when it is their turn.
Musical aims:
L/A
To sing along with a live instrument
MM
To encourage musical memory using actions that relate to the words
EYFS Aims:
M (SSM), L (R) & CL (LA) & (S)
To pre-empt the lyrics which follow a repetitive structure/pattern
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