The Mallard Duck

Collect all pages-cleaned and sized to make a miniature
book for your dolls.

Assemble a mini doll sized book: Right, is the Mallard Duck's illustration and verse. Visitors can collect all the bird illustrations and verse from "Bird Children" to print and construct a small book of verse for their dolls. Simply drag each png. into a Word Document, print, cut out all of the images the same size and staple the pages together at the left edge. Squeeze out some white school glue along the stapled edge of the pages and attach a cardboard cover. 

In shallow water Mallard Duck
At fishing sometimes tries his luck;
At other times he thinks it 's nice
To nibble at the sweet wild rice.

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"Like water off a duck's back" is an idiom that means instruction or criticism or warning have no affect on the person they are being spoken to. Water doesn't soak into the oily feathers of a duck, so they are buoyant and float away...

"That's a lame duck..." is an idiom referring to the lack of authority or the limitations of power. Lame ducks soon become the prey of their stronger predators, they cannot keep from being eaten! This idiom is often used in reference to pending court cases, political strategies or bills put before congress in the U.S.

Additional Authors:

WHEN MRS. DUCK TOOK IN WASHING

       A Terrible thing had happened in the Farmyard. Mr, Drake had run away, leaving his wife with a family of seven small Ducklings to support. How was Mrs. Duck to get along ? The Swan's advice that she start a school to teach chickens to swim did not appeal to her. She scorned Mr. Pig's offer to pay her for serving food to him. Mr. Peacock said: "Now, if you had a tail like mine, you might go on the stage, but with that tail of yours!" And he laughed in that mean, proud way of his.
       Mrs. Goose was the last of the neighbors to go. "I am sorry to leave you, dear," she said to Mrs. Duck, " but you know I have my own work to be about, and, besides, I fear it is going to rain and I may get my gown wet." 
       That set Mrs. Duck to thinking. "Just so," she said; " they are all afraid of the rain. They don't like to get their things soiled. And when they do get them soiled they just throw them away and buy new ones. Now that was never my way; I have always taken a pride in keeping my things cleaned and making them last as long as possible."
       She thought a few more minutes, and then said to herself joyfully: "I know what I shall do; I shall take in washing for my living."
       So she hung out a sign which read like this:

MRS. DUCK
Begs to Inform the Farmyard Folks
that she will
TAKE IN WASHING
ON REASONABLE TERMS.
Work Done Promptly.
Only Best Mud Used.       

        "I think it's most sensible," said Mrs. Dorking. "I shall give her all my things to wash! It will save me a mint of barley!"
       "And I shall go to her, too," said Mrs. Goose.
       "And so shall I," said Major Turkey-cock.
       "I must say she always keeps her own dresses beautifully white," said Mrs. Guinea-fowl. "I wonder if she'd succeed with my spotted muslins."
       "She shall wash my collars," grunted Mr. Pig, who was really a very kind-hearted old chap, though he was rather too fond of his meals.
       And so they went on. Everyone seemed to approve except Peacock, and it didn't matter much about him, because he always was most, dreadfully proud, and nobody minded much what he said.
       So Mrs. Duck got plenty of work to do and the children all helped; and you can't think what an improvement it all made in the looks of things about the Farmyard.
       And Mrs. Duck and the children were well-fed and happy, so that they very soon forgot all about old Mr. Drake, who was a good-for-nothing fellow anyhow.
       But one day Mr. Drake came back, looking very draggle-tailed and ashamed. Of course the Farmyard Folks all had their own opinions. as to what Mrs. Duck should do, and almost everyone thought she should send him packing. But she knew better, "He will come in handy," she said.
       And she set him to work at the washtub. This turned out to be just
the kind of treatment he needed, and he became a dutiful husband.  Henry Altemus Company.

Additional Links to Mallard Ducks:

• Raising New Mallard Ducklings by The Fish Whisperer
• Mallard Calls from My Birding Year
• Color Dolly's friend Mary Lamb along with her Jemima Puddle-Duck Costume.
• The Gentleman Duck coloring sheet

How To Cut A Mallard Duck Paper Chain

Two important tips to remember: the longer the paper the more often the design repeats.
The thinner the paper, the easier it is to cut.

Directions:

1. Measure the length and height of your template in order to determine how much paper you will need before folding it.
2. Use and accordion fold to prepare the paper before cutting.
3. Trace the design so that two sides touch opposite each other along the folds of the paper.
4. Cut away the negative spaces around your design.

An example of what the mallard paper chain could look like once it is cut.

mallard duck template
 is in the (CC)

Mallard ducks shaped from either handprints or cut-outs made from hand tracing.

 

See many more examples of handprint paper craft here.