Pistes d'exploration

What can you infer from the title and cover illustrations? Make connections to personal experiences.

Reread, paying attention to the expressions on the characters' faces. If there were speech and thought bubbles over their heads, what would they say?

Brainstorm school situations in which people fight to be first (to get outside at recess, to get in line, etc.). With a partner, act out ways to solve these problems.

Use a sequencing organizer to retell the story in pictures and words. Share your thinking with others.

Stop reading at “Time for lunch.” Predict what a duck might eat.

Join in as the story is reread. Identify other elements in the illustrations (sun, ladybugs, rubber duckies, etc.).

Make labels of essential keywords and match them to pictures.

Think of scenarios in which students at school fight to be first. Brainstorm expressions that could be used in resolving these situations. Practise saying them out loud.

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Duck! Rabbit!

Mots-clés

Humour , Picture book , ducks , family life , greed , patience , selfishness , surprise endings

Commentaire descriptif

This simple little story captures the cautionary spirit of a classic animal fable while using minimal contemporary language. Every time the mother duck proposes a new activity for her offspring (“Let’s go outside!” or “Who wants to go fishing?”), one little duckling is always rushing ahead: “Me first! Me first!” Sophisticated illustrations use pencil outline and subtly textured colour fills to create graphic and expressive images. ‘Me-first’ splashes everyone, grabbing for the floaty toy in their bath. Mother duck’s beady eyes look cross, her wings poised on her hips. The book’s humorous cry for attention is underscored when bubbles rise from the butt-end of the pushy duckling: “Toot!” His siblings hold their beaks: “peyew,” “yuck,” “icky.” The little duck and young readers alike understand that it’s not always best to be first, when he rushes to a human’s lunch table and learns that duck is on the menu. The final image shows him bent over, creeping away on pencil-line legs. In a witty surprise ending, he replaces his usual motto: “Meow Meow.”