Nov 8, 2013 By Deana Carpenter 2 min read

Students in Norene Sarnowski’s first grade class at South Fayette Elementary School recently had an interesting question posed to them: “If I were a giant rubber ducky, I would swim to…”

The answers to the question were posted outside Sarnowski’s classroom, along with more than 120 photos of students posing with the rubber ducky that recently took up residence near The Point in Pittsburgh.

At first, Sarnowski hung up photos of students from her class, but then realized that many other South Fayette Elementary students journeyed to the North Shore to see the duck up close and personal, so she opened up the Duck Wall to all students. A few teachers posted photos on the wall, as well as principal Laurie Gray. “It’s cool we have a collage,” said first-grader Eli Peller of the photos outside his classroom.

Sarnowski said the popularity of the duck prompted her to ask students who went to see it to take a photo and share with the class.

“I thought it would be fun,” Sarnowski said of the wall of photos outside her room. “It encouraged kids to go downtown. A lot of students went down that maybe wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Sarnowski said she’s still receiving ducky photos most every day, even though it left Pittsburgh weeks ago.

“People really got creative,” with their photos, Sarnowski said. Some kids tried to kiss the duck, hold the duck and “photo bomb” the duck.

“It kind of became a one-upping contest on the creativity,” Sarnowski laughed.

First-grader Ava Cardone said she made a special trip with her family to see the duck.

“I liked the color,” she said of her favorite thing about the ducky.

“I liked how fat it was,” said first-grader Toby Kozares. He said he also liked to see the boats on the water near the duck.

As for some of the places students in Sarnowski’s class would swim to if they were a giant rubber ducky, the answers included Disney World, Chuck E. Cheese, Puerto Rico and “an island to look at coconut trees.”