Five for Friday Penguin Style

I'm sure your class loves PENGUINS as much as mine does!  What a wonderful time we had learning all about Penguins so  I'm sharing a fantastic Five for Friday Penguin Style with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

 

 

We measured ourselves beside a life-size Emperor Penguin!  I sketched the penguin shape on white bulletin board paper, used a thick Sharpie marker to outline and add a few details, and then colored it with crayons. I then mounted the penguin on black paper to make it a little sturdier.  The kids LOVED standing by the Emperor! 

 

 

 

Cute little Penguins made from rectangles & squares!  This one was adapted from the TLC Art Lessons which really helps children develop their fine motor skills.  These lessons also aid with improving listening skills and following directions.  It's a Win Win!

 

Plenty of playful PENGUINS + blocks of ice = Sensory Table FUN!

 

 

 

 How does a PENGUIN keep warm? 

The class got a kick out of our "blubber" experiment.  So easy but yet so meaningful!  I simply put ice cubes in a big plastic bag and let the kids experience the C-O-L-D.  Then we talked about the "blubber" layer a penguin has and how it keeps them warm.  To recreate the "blubber", I filled a sandwich size baggie with Crisco shortening and placed it on the ice.  Students then took turns putting their hands on the bag of "blubber".  They quickly realized it was much warmer to have the layer of "blubber" than to touch the ice directly.

 

 

The highlight of PENGUIN week for me was seeing King Penguins! Over the long MLK weekend, I travelled to Cincinnati for my son's hockey tournament and visited the wonderful Cincinnati Zoo! I videoed the morning Penguin Parade and took a ton of pictures to share with my class.  As they oohed and aahed over the cute penguins, students shared fact after fact demonstrating how much they'd learned! 

 

Are you obsessed with Penguins, too?    

 

A Week of Winter

I've missed blogging but ready to jump back in with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a quick

 

This week has been all about winter, hibernation, and our COLD, COLD weather!

We made these cute little snowmen with a plastic bottle (these are CoffeeMate creamer bottles but you  could certainly use other kinds of bottles), lots of cotton balls or batting, wiggly eyes, buttons, and a strip of flannel fabric for a warm scarf.  Jamming the cotton balls down in the bottle proved to be an excellent fine motor activity for my preschoolers.

 

 

 

Our classroom door is the sweetest snowman on our hall!  He was very simple to make, too.  Just cover your door with white bulletin board paper, add construction paper eyes/nose/mouth, and a fabric scarf.  His black paper hat is hung above the door in the hallway.  This picture was snapped on our Hibernation Day when students & teachers enjoyed a day wearing their favorite warm pajamas!

 

 

A few students are working on recognizing the differences between a letter-word-sentence. We had a quick review lesson and then sorted out the cards by gluing them in the proper column. 

 

 

Next week is one of my favorite units to teach...Penguins!

I brought home big rolls of black and white bulletin board paper to make a life-size Emperor Penguin for our classroom!  One activity will be standing by the penguin to see if you're as tall as he is!

 

 



Unfortunately, my bigger plans for the weekend include getting rid of this bad cold.  Had it all week and I'm ready for it to go away.  It's interesting that even with the advanced medicines and cough syrups on the pharmacy shelves, I still think the best relief comes from that little jar of mentholatum!