I made up the story of ìPawa the Duckî in front of the class and then went home and over the next few weeks refined it a little and had fun drawing the illustrations for it. The kids loved it and I have gone back to locals schools several times to retell itÖ especially just before out annual duck race here in Waipawa. (An event where lots and lots of little yellow rubber duckies are dropped in our river to see who can swim down it the fastest).
Anyway this is a very brief outline of how the story goesÖ

This story is about Pawa the duck and her family.

Her bigger brothers and sisters are always mean to Pawa. They call her nasty names and never let her get enough to eat.

Which makes Pawa feel sad

So Pawa decides to do something that sheís good at and be the best she can be. Sheís not good at waddling or eatingÖ but great at swimming. She trains really hard, ignoring her horrible brothers and sisters who tease her terriblyÖ and then one day enters the duck race atÖ Waipawa! (Yay!)
- Guess which duck is Pawa? ñThatís right the littlest one, who everyone underestimates.

She swims really hardÖ and wins the race!

An Olympic selector was at the race and saw Pawa winÖ and asked her to represent New Zealand in River racing. And Pawa won the gold medal!

SoÖ

So that is another story of why we have a big yellow concrete duck in our main street. It does actually have a few more words than that and more pictures ñ but you get the idea.

Maybe one day Iíll get it published?
Anyone out there interested?