The story follows a hard-working duck who cooks and cleans, tends the fields and cares for the other animals on the farm – and all while the farmer lies in bed! A lazy and fat farmer spends all day in bed, eating chocolates and reading the newspaper, while his poor duck has to do all the work on the farm. That is until the day the animals decide to take action by coming to the rescue with a simple, but heroic plan. It teaches the lesson that your friends are always there to help you and that working together can help everyone. You can also learn more about reading comprehension and how to develop your children’s skills by watching our informative video below!

In Year1/2 children can study the importance of story structure in this book - the introduction, the middle and the end. I feel this book is aimed at EYFS/KS1 due to the use of repetition and sounds (A great tool to potentially develop phonics! Read the story again, this time leaving spaces for children to join in with the repeated phrases and animal noises. Featuring images for each stage of the story, this presentation is perfect for retelling the story with your class or eliciting useful vocabulary from the images. All day long, duck feeds the animals, collects the eggs, saws the firewood and does all the cooking and ironing while the farmer shouts “How goes the work?Two are multiple choice questions, and the other two challenge children to answer through writing in full sentences. Children can use the illustrations from the book to form associations with the new vocabulary provided. Talking about the book deepens children’s enjoyment and understanding of the story and helps them to make connections with their own experience. This book would be nice to use during a teacher led activity because it works nicely if the words are read aloud and maybe if the children start joining in. He works hard on a farm all day and all night, while the lazy farmer lies in bed and eats chocolate.

I personally enjoyed reading about the reverse roles of the Duck and the farmer duck, which beats a tradition tale of a Farmer.gets too much for duck, his friends the cow, sheep and hens, who love duck very much, have a meeting with all the other farm animals to find a solution to ease poor ducks plight and rid themselves of the lazy farmer.

The farmer continuously asks the Duck how the work is going with the repetitive phrase 'How goes the work'. The illustrations by Helen Oxenbury are as integral to the story as the words and convey so beautifully the humour of Waddells story and touching affection of ducks friends that make this a book that children will want you to read again and again.

Created using illustrations directly from the book, children can look at the six sequencing cards and talk about what they can see. The illustrations go from gray and gloomy, when the duck is doing all the work, to bright and sunny, when the farmer gets his comeuppance. It may not be commonly recognised by children that a duck is female; but unless this is appreciated the feminist message of this picture book will be lost. Created in collaboration with Walker Books, this engaging Farmer Duck Comprehension focuses on the first page of the story when the lazy farmer and hard-working duck are introduced.

They can develop their gross motor skills by carrying out farm chores or use musical instruments and vocal sounds to create a sound story. Helen Oxenbury's watercolor illustrations really communicate Duck's feelings and his weariness as he takes care of the farm despite the fact that all he ever utters is Quack. The other farm animals really like Duck, and so one day they come up with a plan for helping him out.This was another book that I read with the Reception class I worked with during SEB as one of their core texts. While the duck worked hard all day every day, the farmer used to lie in bed, eating chocolates, getting fatter and fatter.