The Duck and the Kangaroo Summary Class 8 English Honeydew

The Duck and the Kangaroo were good friends. The Duck wanted to go on a long pleasure trip. She asked the Kangaroo to let her sit on his back. She was feeling bored in her dirty pond. She wished she too could hop like the Kangaroo.

The Kangaroo gladly granted the request. But he put two conditions. Firstly, the Duck would sit at the end of his tail. Secondly, she would sit still. The Duck accepted both the conditions. She further assured his friend that her wet and cold feet would not give him rheumatism, because she had bought four pairs of woollen socks and a gown.

Together they set out happily on a world tour. They were the happiest pair.

Notes For the Teacher

• Try the method suggested for The Last Bargain.
• Before taking up the text and the activities given, let children talk about ‘unusual’ activities they want to do such as walking on the moon, floating in outer space or shaking hands with an octopus. Take every idea seriously, no matter how improbable it may seem. We may come upon enough raw material of which The Duck and the Kangaroo is made.
• It may be suggested that a story/poem like the present one need not be factually correct or ‘real’. We enjoy reading them because they appeal to our imagination, curiosity and sense of the music of words.
• Children should be encouraged to attempt short poems such as the following.
  1. Once I knew
  A Kangaroo
  Named Sue
  How about you?
  2. ‘There is a man
  called Peter Pan’,
  ‘I know another
  who’s neither Pan nor Peter.
  You haven’t met him, have you?
  It’s my friend Kanga Roo’.
• Sample two is impromptu as you rightly guessed, did you?