Hi Friends!
I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow. :-) My kids were too sweet today. They prayed for snow and a "two hour delay" so they could see Ms. H tomorrow. Little do they know, but their teacher is praying for a whole snow day!
I know! I know! Many of you live where you never get snow days, especially for 1-2 inches of snow. :-) Well, let me cheer you up with some cute penguin activities.
Our theme last week was penguins. I began by introducing our unit before our special. Quickly I gave my kinders 3 things to think about while they were gone.
1. Can penguins fly?
2. Do penguins have feathers?
3. Do penguins live in the North Pole?
When they returned, I asked the questions again. Each of them had a turn to come to the chart paper and write their answer. We talked about taking an educated guess about what we think will happen. I also told them that scientist, never just listen to their friends, but they use the information they know.
As you can see, each child wrote his or her answers. I then read this book. I love this book for many reasons. One reason is because it has good information in it with kid friendly terms.
After we read the book, we went back and posted the truth over our educated guesses.
The next day, we used the book to see all the different species of penguins.
My kids gathered around our map, and I showed the kids where each of the penguins live. We had a discussion about the difference between the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere.
We used our growth chart to see if we were taller than the largest penguin. (45 inches). I could kick myself for accidentally deleting them off of my phone.
We also used the book to read about the animals that like to eat penguins and how they use their bodies as a disguise.
The next day we used the information we know to make this chart.
I modeled how to build a sentence from this chart. My kinders were then set free to go write about what they learned about penguins.
The next day, we made a penguin craft to hold our penguin essays. Below I have provided a few pictures for examples.
Here is a glimpse at my patterns in case you need them.
Normal size black construction paper as the body.
Wings
The head uses about a third of regular construction paper.
His earmuffs are made out of corrugated scrapbook paper. I did not give my kids directions on which way to place their eyes. It turned out really cute with all the eyes looking in different directions.
Then it is complete with little penguin feet!
What Arctic animals do you teach?
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