How rubber ducks reveal ocean secrets

Advanced lesson plan (B2 and above): How rubber ducks reveal ocean secrets - BUY ME A COFFEE if you like my FREE ESL content

A shipment of rubber ducks lost at sea in 1992 is still teaching us about ocean currents.

In this B2/C1 worksheet, students will learn about how these 'Friendly Floatees' have been traced by oceanographers for three decades. In addition, they will study a short video about how ducks' feathers protect them from the water, learn six duck-related idioms, and more! 

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Lesson activities:

1) To warm up, students will read six pun-ny jokes about ducks, and try and say three tongue twisters as fast and as clearly as possible.

2) Students will watch a short video (4:51) from PBS about how ducks' feathers keep them dry. Key vocabulary: to preen oneself, vaned/down feathers, to rummage around.

3) Next, students will see six duck-related idioms/words: like water off a duck's back, to take to something like a duck to water, a lame duck, a sitting duck, to duck, a quack. They will get a chance to see them in sentences, and to create their own sentences with these idioms. 

4) Finally, they will read an article about how oceanographers have used a lost shipment of rubber ducks to study ocean currents. Key vocabulary: bobbed, humble, to lay bare, immortalise, beachcombers, devoted.