Fit Kids Clubhouse: Readathon2012: Clubhouse Ducklings

Tuesday

Readathon2012: Clubhouse Ducklings

This week Memetales Readathon2012 is all about animals! There were a few books on the app to choose from, and after reading them all my Son chose "The Five Little Ducklings" and said,

"Let's do duck stuff."

So duck stuff it was.

First, let me just say that there were no ducks harmed in the making of these activities. No, seriously, I just happened to luck out because a few weeks ago there was a serious rubber duckie sale at a local store, and I totally stocked up. Rubber duckies are big during bath time around here. An oldie, but a goodie... and I'll fill the entire tub if that's what it takes to get the kid to bathe.

Now on to the show...

I set up a table in the classroom with 3 bowls, a.k.a, duck hiding spots. The green things? Those are the hills. Add Momma Duck and her 5 Ducklings and we were good to go.

We may not do "screen time" at Fit Kids Clubhouse, but we definitely do audio, so I improvised. I brought up the Memetales app on my iPhone, selected The Five Little Ducklings, and pressed play. As they listened to the story, they immediately proceeded to act it out with our "props".

"My duck is going over the hill..."

"Momma Duck won't find this one."

"Only one duck is going back to Momma!"

They enjoyed taking the ducks over the hill, hiding them, and only returning the said amount. I had to play the story about 5 times, one per each duckling I guess :)

Then they decided to get creative and, of course, start mixing the ingredients that were in each bowl. Suddenly water beads and that fake blue "grass" found their way into the play dough bowl, along with a duckie.

"We need more space for more duckies..." was the comment that led to the spreading out of all of the "water" onto the table, rolling out the play dough, individually squishing in each water bead and mashing in the blue grass.

"We should use some numbers..."

was the comment that led to another Clubhouse Kid running to get the appropriate magnetic numbers out of a basket, and mashing those into the play dough as well. I sat back and watched as they set up this scene. Putting everything in place, even moving the "hills" and putting Momma Duck on the other side, alone.

Watching THEM bring the story to life like this was truly amazing.

There are many different renditions of the song "The Five Little Ducklings" so we listened to a few of those while outside splashing around in a sensory table full of, guess what? More ducks! With some blue water and seashells for good measure.

Of course that wasn't nearly enough duck stuff, so I just had to start up a game of...

"Hide and Go Quack!!"

As soon as I told the Clubhouse Kids the name of the game my Son declared,

"It will be where you are the momma duck and

you find us baby ducks!!"

Right on kid. I counted, to FIVE of course, and my ducklings spread all about. While I walked around, undoubtedly quacking loud enough for the neighbors to hear, I managed to always bring all of my ducklings back home to me...