10 Little Rubber Ducks

10 Little Rubber Ducks was written by Eric Carle after he read a newspaper article about rubber ducks getting lost at sea. On the inside page of the book Eric Carle wrote, "I could not resist making a story out of this newspaper report." There is a torn picture of the newspaper article he is referring to. The story is about how 10 little rubber ducks get lost at sea. Each page has a duck and what they encountered on their voyage out at sea with the 10th little rubber duck finding a unique home.

The first thing that I noticed about this book was that the artwork was unique and visually stimulating. Each page is illustrated by Eric Carle using his unique painting style. I think that children and adults alike can appreciate each individual painting.

I have read this book to my own children and they have always loved the story. When I read it to them I would have them count the ducks out loud to work on their number sense and one-to-one correspondence. This book also cover number sense in relation to ordinal numbers. The book can also be used for color recognition discussion. All of these concepts are appropriate for Pre-K thru Kindergarten.

For first grade this book can be used in support of vocabulary, specifically verbs. The book uses sentences like, "A flamingo stares at it.", "An octopus blinks at it.", and "A turtle glides past it." (Carle, NP) As a teaching tool you can have the children act out the verbs like stare, blink, and glide to give them a better understanding of the meaning. You can also spark discussions about flamingos, octopuses, and turtles among other things.

The final topic that I think can be addressed with a class is acceptance. With the unique home that the 10th duck finds you can have a class discussion on differences and fitting in.

Overall I think that this is a very good and useful children's book that can be utilized in many different ways for a variety of topics from mathematics to emotional development.