These Grade One students will be helping to care for the ducklings for one month until they are released at Memorial Gardens. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

No Ducking Class

Quack to School; St. Michael’s students raising ducklings

May 12, 2023 | 2:04 PM

The student enrolment at St. Michael’s School just got a little bit bigger.

The school is once again having their younger grades and the daycare raise some ducklings for a month until they are ready to be released at Prince Albert Memorial Gardens.

“What it does is it brings children around to look at the ducks all summer. It really makes a difference when you have kids coming to the cemetery to visit,” said Don Cody, who works at Memorial Gardens and has seen the program run for the entire 15 years he has been there.

As they do every year, ducklings are taken to multiple schools, including Ecole St. Anne, John Diefenbaker, Spruce Home, St. Francis’ day care, TLC Day Care in Birch, Hope’s Home Day Care, the Family Resource Centre, PA Child Care and King George Child Care.

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At St. Michael’s School, seven-year-old Stryker McCallum was an instant fan of the ducks and named one of them Lily.

“I’ll give them food, give them water and play with them,” she said.

Stryker McCallum, age 7, was happy to hold a duckling. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Another student, Marcus Cook – also age seven – had a little more to add.

“You give them food, you give them water, a cage, you give them a bunch of toys and you can also give them your finger and let them nibble on it because it doesn’t hurt,” he said.

Laura Oliver, who teaches pre-kindergarten at St. Michael said that caring for the ducks makes the children happy and fits into their school curriculum as well.

“It’s watching the life cycle of the ducks and they learn how to be gentle, they learn compassion for animals,” she said. “It’s beautiful to watch the kids watch the ducks grow up.”

It doesn’t stop there, though, with seniors getting in on the action as well.

For many, seeing the ducks brings back memories of life on farms where the fowl were kept as pets or livestock.

‘It makes a big difference to them, that they see life like this again because they don’t see very much of that kind of thing in a senior’s home,” said Cody.

On June 20^th, the program ducklings will be launched by students at the pond at Memorial Gardens.

At least one duckling seemed to be questioning the whole idea. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)