Duck on a Bike
Author: David Shannon; Illustrator: David Shannon
It’s just another day on the farm when Duck gets a ‘wild idea.’ After eyeballing a big red bike, he hops on and goes for a ride!
As he clumsily pedals around the barn yard, Duck passes each of the other inhabitants of the farm, quacking out a hearty hello. Each animal responds as we’d expect - ‘M-o-o-o,’ says cow - but adds their own critique of the Duck’s zany behavior.
The Cow thinks Duck is being silly. The Sheep thinks he’ll get hurt. The Cat wouldn’t waste her time like that and the Horse knows he can run faster than any bike. The Goat would just as soon eat the bike as ride it and the two Pigs think Duck is a show-off. Clearly, the animals are not impressed with Duck’s idea.
Or are they? We find out for sure when a pack of children come riding up to the farmhouse. As they dump their bikes on the front lawn, the animals gather and stare. An idea forms, a wild idea, and next thing you know all the animals are pedalling around the yard having a wonderful time and praising Duck for his smart thinking.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that I have a special love for children’s stories that take place on the farm. There’s something about the mix of animals and tractors and crops and big, red barns that is just so perfect for kindergarten storytelling. And when this essential kiddie setting is mixed with a humorous story, all the better.
If you read many children’s books in the Funny Farm genre, you start to see common threads. For instance, cows and sheep are maternal, chickens are, well, chicken, and the duck is always the troublemaker. (Don’t believe me? Check out Click, Clack, Moo, Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Duck for President, Serious Farm, and Babe.)
By tapping into these expectations, Duck On a Bike provides students an immediate connection to the story. Without knowing the details, they understand the basic structure of what is about to happen. It is through discovering and tapping these personal connections that students build an ability to comprehend stories and texts they read on their own.
Duck On A Bike also gets kids thinking about dialog in a story. Without being overwhelming (I have very strong opinions on what constitutes good or bad use of dialog in a children’s book), the animals’ dialog shows children how to handle the introduction of speech in a book. Even better, since every pre-kindergarten and kindergarten student knows the sounds farm animals make, children will have fun saying or listening to the animals’ lines in their own special voice.
Needless to say, David Shannon’s illustrations once more win the day. The expressions on the animals faces, especially as they eyeball all those bikes are truly priceless. This book would be a winner without any words at all. My students especially like the end of the story where we see duck rubbing his chin and considering the big, red tractor that sits before him. This sort of detailed, well-considered picture support lays a groundwork for getting students to think about and extend the stories they read.
Read-Aloud Tips
- I seem to say this about nearly every book I read, but you simply must use voices when reading this book. The dialog is perfect for this, since each animal speaks their lines clearly and alone, without any confusing character switches.
- To emphasise the plot of the story, try to emulate each animal’s attitude, as well as their sounds. Remember, this story’s humor stems from the fact that each animal feigns indifference to the Duck’s idea, but secretly wishes they could ride a bike, too. This plot element is easy to play up as you read what each character thinks.
- Encourage children to read the predictable parts of the book with you. Duck’s lines and the spoken response of each animals are easy to predict and get children actively involved in the story.
- Never read a David Shannon book without spending ample time examining and talking about the pictures. Do a picture walk before reading and give students plenty of opportunity to look at the details in the picture.
Comprehension Questions
Pre-reading:
- Read the title. Look at the picture on the front cover. What do you see? Do you think this will be a true or make-believe story? Why?
- Flip through three or four pages of the book without reading any words (this is called picture walking). How do you think the other farm animals feel about the Duck riding around on a bike? Why do you think they might they feel that way?
Post-reading:
- What did the other animals think about the Duck riding a bike? Name a few specific animals and see if your child can recall exactly what that animal thought. Provide clues, if necessary, by showing them the picture or talking about what that sort of animal tends to be like (cats are aloof, horses are proud, chickens are scared).
- Open the book to the wordless page where all the animals are staring at the bikes. What do you think the animals are thinking? How do they feel?
Literacy Activities
Writing
Coming up with sentences is often the hardest part of writing for young children. This makes capitalizing on existing knowledge and interests critically important. Since most kindergarteners already know a great deal about farm animals, this books opens a door for a lot of writing opportunities. A few are listed, below:
- Pick an animal from the story and draw a detailed picture of it. Now thing of two things you know about that animal and write sentences that teach us what you know. (Ex: Cows eat grass. Cows give us milk.)
- Pretend that you are a farmer. What kinds of animals would you have on your farm? Draw a BIG picture of your farm, including barns, ponds, and, of course, all the animals that live there. When the picture is finished, go back and label all the things you drew.
- Write a new page to this story by thinking of an animal that the Duck did not ride by. What would that animal say to the duck? What would that animal think of the duck riding a bike? Draw a picture and write your sentences to match the pattern of the book.
Phonemic Awareness
- Whoops! Read the lines that each animal says in the story again, but change one of the words by altering either it’s beginning (the /d/ in duck) or ending (the /k/ in duck) sound. Challenge your child to fix the messed up word in the sentence.
Example: He’s going to gurt himself if he’s not careful.
Note: This activity builds two important skills for your child. First, it builds their simple listening skills as they must attend to which word in the sentence doesn’t sound right. Second, it builds phoneme substitution as they figure out what sound to replace. - What’s the Matter, Cow Got Your Tongue? Tell your child that you will be saying words in a cow voice, i.e., long and ssslllooowww. They have to listen to the sounds and figure out what the word is. As you say each word in the list below (they are all drawn from the story), be sure to stretch them out into their separate phonemes, or sounds.
Note: This activity builds blending skills. Read our page for more information.
Phonics
Sound Hunt: Fold a paper lengthwise into four columns and draw or label each with an animal from the story (or print ours). Now challenge your child to find pictures in old magazines or newspapers that start with the same sound/letter as that animal. If you don’t have any magazines, they can draw their own pictures.
Fun
- Just Do It: Go for a bike ride! As you ride, take turns saying hello to the things, people, and animals that you pass. Be sure to practice your duck voice…QUACK! Hello, stop sign!
- Act It Out: You can act out this entire story, if you like, but I particularly like the part where all the animals get on bikes and ride around the barnyard for dramatic play. Pick an animal each and pretend to be that animal on a bike. How would they look? What might they say?
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