🦆 Mother Duck's Silly Waddle Parade - Preschool Lesson
🦆 Mother Duck’s Silly Waddle Parade
A toddler-friendly story about a walk filled with surprises!
From The Everyday Schoolhouse
🧩 Snippet Description:
In this sweet spring lesson plan, Mother Duck takes her ten ducklings on a walk — but it quickly turns into a silly adventure! Along the way, they meet a muddy pig, a caterpillar, a butterfly, a bird, and a banana-wearing raccoon. With a heartwarming story, themed craft, snack, game, song, poem, and early learning activity, this duck-themed lesson is perfect for preschoolers in homeschool or classroom settings.
📖 STORY:
🦆 Mother Duck’s Silly Waddle Parade
A spring walk turns into a day of surprises!
It was a bright, sunny morning, and Mother Duck was ready for an adventure.
“Come along, little ones!” she called to her ten fluffy ducklings. “Let’s go for a walk.”
One by one, the ducklings waddled behind her in a wiggly, wobbly line. Duckling 1 tripped over a rock. Duckling 2 walked sideways. But eventually, they all got moving.
As they passed the pig pen, a big pig popped up from the mud with a goofy smile.
“Where are you off to, all squeaky clean?” the pig snorted. “There’s plenty of mud right here if you want to make things interesting!”
Mother Duck chuckled. “No thank you, we’ve just started our walk.”
Ducklings 3 and 4 were marching near a tree when they spotted a striped caterpillar crawling slowly along a branch.
“Hello there,” the caterpillar said. “I can’t fly yet, but one day I’ll have wings.”
The ducklings looked up at the sky, then back at the tiny crawler. “You can really fly someday?” they asked.
“Someday soon,” said the caterpillar with a smile.
Ducklings 5 and 6 waddled through some tall grass and spotted a butterfly fluttering by. She twirled in the air and did a loop right above their heads.
“Wow!” said the ducklings.
The butterfly paused mid-air. “I do my best flying after I’ve had a good nap. Don’t forget to rest and stretch your wings, little ones!”
They nodded and tried to flap their tiny wings too.
Up ahead, Ducklings 7 and 8 stopped when a bright blue bird swooped down onto a fence post.
“Are you racing?” the bird asked.
“No,” said the ducklings. “We’re just out for a walk with our mom.”
“Good,” the bird chirped. “Racing makes me hungry, and I already ate three worms and a berry!”
The ducklings laughed, imagining the bird with a big, round belly.
Finally, Ducklings 9 and 10 were walking near the bushes when something rustled. Out popped a raccoon with a banana peel on his head.
“Oops,” he said. “I was aiming for a hat.”
“Why do you have a banana hat?” asked the ducklings.
“Because I’m stylish,” the raccoon replied proudly.
Mother Duck called out, “Time to head home!”
The ducklings turned around and waddled back the way they came, giggling and chatting about all the animals they had met.
As they snuggled in at home, Duckling 4 yawned and said, “That was the silliest walk ever.”
Mother Duck smiled. “And that’s why I love our walks the most.”
The End.
🎨 CRAFT: Duck Parade Headbands
Supplies:
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Yellow, Green, and orange construction paper
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Glue stick
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Scissors
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Googly eyes (optional)
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Markers or crayons
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Tape or stapler
Directions:
Cut a strip of green or yellow paper to fit around each child’s head. Let them decorate it like a duck’s face — add eyes, a beak, feathers, or silly accessories like a "banana hat" or "mud splatter." Or you can cutout duck templates made from cardstock to add to the headband. Wear the headbands and parade around the room like the ducklings!
🎨 CRAFT: Wiggle Waddle Duck Face
Supplies:
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Yellow Paper Plates
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Glue stick
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Scissors
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White, Orange & Black Construction Paper
Directions:
Cut out 2 white circles from white construction paper and 2 smaller circles from black construction paper. Cutout a beak from the orange paper. Glue them to a yellow paper plate. Now your Wiggle Waddle duck face is ready!
🍌 SNACK: Banana Hat Duck Cups
Supplies:
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Vanilla pudding or yogurt
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Yellow food coloring (optional)
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Banana slices
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Graham cracker crumbles (mud!)
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Plastic cups and spoons
- Duck cutuout or markers (to add the duck on front of cup)
Layer pudding or yogurt in a cup, add crumbled crackers on top, and place a banana slice on the very top like a silly “hat.” You can even draw a face on the cup!
🍌 SNACK: Wiggle Waddle Bites
Supplies:
-
Saltine Crackers
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Cheese Slices
- Duck cookie cutter
Cut out duck shapes with a duck cookie cutter. Lay the duck cheese cutout on the saltine cracker. That's it!
🎲 GAME: Waddle Like That!
Tell the children they’re going on a duck walk — but they’ll have to walk like the animals they met.
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Pig = roll or crawl
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Caterpillar = squirm and stretch
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Butterfly = flap arms
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Bird = hop in place
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Raccoon = tiptoe and pose
Say the animal name aloud and let them switch their waddles!
🎵 SONG: “Waddle, Wiggle, What Do We See?”
(To the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”)
🎶
The ducks on the walk go waddle, waddle, waddle,
Waddle, waddle, waddle,
Waddle, waddle, waddle,
The ducks on the walk go waddle, waddle, waddle,
All through the mud!
🎶
They see a pig who oinks out loud,
“Oink, oink, oink!” he’s proud!
They see a pig who oinks out loud,
And rolls in the mud!
📝 POEM:
Pitter-Patter, Splash and Splatter
Mother duck wanted to take her ducklings for a walk
But first she had to find them.
Baby ducks 1, 2, and 3 were playing by a tree.
Pitter-patter
Splash and splatter
Muddy puddle
Wiggle waddle
Ducks 4, 5, and 6 were playing pick-up sticks.
Pitter-patter
Splash and splatter
Muddy puddle
Wiggle waddle
Numbers 7 and 8 were making mud pies by the gate.
Pitter-patter
Splash and splatter
Muddy puddle
Wiggle waddle
Oh no! 9 and 10 were in the pig pen!
Pitter-patter
Splash and splatter
Muddy puddle
Wiggle waddle
Mother Duck started to laugh.
“Instead of a walk… you need a bath!”
🧠 LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Duckling Line-Up (Counting 1–10)
Create 10 duck cutouts with numbers. Mix them up and have the child line them up in order behind a paper Mother Duck.
Extension idea: Ask questions like “Which duck met the caterpillar?” to reinforce number order and story recall.
💬 LET’S TALK ABOUT IT (Teacher/Parent Prompts):
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What was your favorite animal the ducklings met?
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Which part of the walk made you laugh the most?
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Have you ever worn something silly like the raccoon’s banana hat?
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Why is it fun to meet different kinds of animals?
📩 PARENT RESOURCE:
Encourage families to go on a “silly walk” in their backyard or around the neighborhood. Look for animals or bugs and make up fun voices or stories about what each one might say! You can even reread the story at bedtime and act it out together.
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