Farmer Duck

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This is a great book to read to KS1 pupils as it has a large amount of repetition in terms of lines but also animal noises. It can be used easily in English as the farmer is a great character to analyse. They can identify the problems with the farmer and discuss solutions to help him change. This can be done with both written work but also through drama activities. Children can use animal toys to act out the story. It’s a really good way for them to get to know the story well. They could also do this on a small scale witha storybox of the farmyard scene, as in the illustration above. Compare the beginning and ending The farmer is very lazy. Why are people lazy sometimes? How does this impact on other people? How can we try to stop ourselves from being lazy? There is a lot of speech in the book. Use this to develop, or reinforce, understanding of speech marks and how they are used.

Look at different ways of writing plurals, using animal names as inspiration, e.g. cows, sheep, mice. They stole down the hall’ is a sentence from the book. ‘Stole’ can have more than one meaning. Can you think of other words like this (i.e. Homonyms). The book is available in a number of languages. Could you use these to introduce children to other languages? Children can create their own farm picture by drawing, painting or using collage with torn coloured paper.

Created using illustrations directly from the book, children can look at the six sequencing cards and talk about what they can see. They could work together or individually to sequence the cards and use them to support retelling the story. Look at the illustrations of the farm at the beginning and end of the book. How are they different? Could you draw your own farm pictures in similar styles? Find out about the animals on the farm. Why do people keep those animals on a farm? What kinds of jobs do farmers have to do to look after them? Thanks for getting in touch. You might also like this: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-2545726-ronald-the-rhino-story-powerpoint a very interactive book to get the children involved with and big bright pictures to engage them. raises some issues such as inequality to possibly discuss with the class.

Who doesn’t love an abused animal that spends all his time farming? I adored this book when I was younger and to this day still shout “How goes the work?!” from my bedroom window if my Mother is gardening outside. Look together at the pictures in the two endpaper spreads showing the view of the fields and farm on the hill in the distance. How has the picture changed from the beginning to the end of the story? What reasons might there be for the changes? Make a newendingRead the story again, this time leaving spaces for children to join in with the repeated phrases and animal noises. Reading the story again and again helps children to read more of the story themselves and builds their confidence in books and reading. Talk together