Students can practice retelling the story and retracing the ducks' routes. Have the students write each duckling's name on a file card, then scramble the order of the file cards, and practice putting them back in alphabetical order. See if the students can think of new names for the ducklings that mirror the same alphabetical sequence. This story takes place in a city and your students will be able to find urban characteristics throughout the book. Make a chart which highlights the characteristics of and differences between a city, a suburban area, and a rural area.
Students can compare and contrast the buildings, open spaces, transportation, population sizes, etc.
Primary The Montgomery County Public Schools has provided two lessons which focus on this book. This sculptor has created bronze statues of the ducklings and Mrs. Mallard for the Boston Garden. Details of her work are at this site. Primary, Intermediate This lesson provides a fun way for students to learn some very basic, though essential, geographic principals, such as scale, map reading, land-use analysis, and air photo interpretation. This class website has activities and lots of photos about Make Way for Ducklings .