Penguins, Penguins!! Lots of Pics!!

I think most of us as teachers teach a unit on penguins, but if you haven't you really need to!!  They are so interesting and there's a ton of fun things you can do to make learning meaningful and fun!!

First we start off with a learning chart to record our schema and our new learning.  I saw Deanna's HERE and had to do one.  :)

We also made a can have are chart after reading several non-fiction books about penguins.

 Then, we made these adorable penguins I saw HERE.

and added our very own can have are papers so our parents would know what we've learned about penguins.

 Um, they look adorable hanging outside in the hall!

Ok, y'all this had to be the most fun thing we did all week!!

We learned in one of our books that penguins find their mates and parents by sounds.

We talked about how penguins pretty much all look the same so they need a way to find each other.

So, I grabbed the sound tub from our library.  It had all kinds of noise makers.

I asked the kids if they remembered how penguins find their mates/parents and they said my noise.  Next, I let the girls come up and choose an instrument.  I had the boys do the same.  Then, they had to make their sound and find their partner.  Y'all, they loved it!  The fun doesn't stop there.  Next, I had the boys choose an instrument from the tub and find a spot to hide in around the room.  The girls had to get an instrument too then they had to walk around the room to find their partner ONLY by sound.  NO talking was allowed.  LAST, I turned out the lights and we did the same thing.  

They begged and begged all week to play again and again!  

We learned how Emperor penguins keep their eggs on their feet to take care of them so we practiced doing this by walking with an egg (football) on our feet (or in between our legs).

We played two at a time and when.  When they made it to me they got some krill...gummy worms.

 We also practiced huddling in groups to stay warm just like penguins!

 I've always wanted to do the Blubber Mitten...we did it!  The kids adored this activity and oh so meaningful to show them how blubber really acts like a blanket!

We learned in Gail Gibbons Penguin Book that a penguin's feathers are waterproof.

 I saw this really cool waterproof experiment HERE at The Freckled Homeschooler.

I just die-cut these penguins from black construction paper and had the kids color the entire penguin with a black crayon.  When they thought they were finished I told them to keep coloring.  

Next, we went back in our text and found the page where it talked about waterproof & re-read the page.  I gave each table a cup of water and a paintbrush.  They had to dip the brush and shake the water on their penguin.  Then, hold it up and watch how the water falls right off the penguin.  

Amazed?!?!  Yes, they couldn't believe it.  They wanted to keep shaking and shaking...and I'll just say we may or may not have busted out Shake it Off by Taylor Swift.   HA!

 In art center each child painted a penguin.  After they dried we used them for some life-size subtraction stories.  I quickly whipped up this iceberg and water from some butcher paper and cut off the tops...chopped up some construction paper for our symbols and we went to town.  I made up penguin stories about penguins from the iceberg jumping into the water.  It was very dramatic with all kinds of sound effects.  ;)  So engaging and SO FUN!!

 I just had to make these this year!  I tell ya, so adorable!  My kids just laughed and laughed at them.  

I saw these all over the internet and I think they came from HERE at A Year of Many Firsts.

We wrote about our pictures and about snow.

These say

"I like the snow on Christmas night"

"I like snow.  I roll snow into a snowman.  I play in the snow."

 These say

"I like to catch snowflakes on my tongue."

"Some boys and girls catch snowflakes on their tongue."

 These say

"All snowflakes are different.  I like snow."

"I see the snow."

"I like snowflakes.  I catch them on my tongue."

You can tell by their writing that they are on all different kind of levels, but I love what they each come up with!

And, finally here's MORE centers from my Wintertastic Fun Unit that is brand new this winter!

If you made it all to the bottom Wow!!  

This was a really long post, but I hope you found something you can use in your own classroom!!

I would love to hear from you below!

Write Your Heart Out!!!

I've had many requests to write a blog post on how I run my writing center.  As you can see by some of the pictures, I've been meaning to post this since October...well that didn't go so well.  But, I was able to snap a few more pictures of our writing center in action since then so here we go.

You can find August/September Here.

October

November

December

January

I totally revamped my writing center before the year started.  It was in need of a major overhaul.  My writing center has always suffered a little because honestly I didn't have what I needed or wanted to keep my students engaged and busy the whole time.  I'm embarrassed to say that they usually ended up just doodling or coloring and not actually practicing writing.  Sad, but true.

I knew some things that I wanted my students to be doing there, but just didn't have to materials to get it going.  So, I created my Write your Heart Out monthly units.  

Here's the jewelry holder writing rings holder that hangs in my writing center.  TJ Maxx Score!

Each  month I switch out the rings to go with each activity.  The only rings that stay are the basics which are alphabets, colors, shapes, etc.  Each ring is organized thematically.

Each week my students have the option of making an alphabet letter book.

I have all kinds of letter stickers that they can choose from to put on the cover.

The kids like it because it's quick and easy and fun!  Then, they can do more!

Sometimes my units have thematic puzzles of some sort and this one is in January.  They loved this one!

 January rings...

And, this is a labeling sheet that is in each month to match each theme.

The kids simply find the ring of words, and label the pictures.

Do you want to build a snowman labeling...Um, this may or may not have prompted a Frozen sing along competition.

 I honestly think this is one of their favorite writing center activities!  

I run out of copies of these flip books every week!

These began in October and they fell in love.  They are super fun to make and write in!

 There is a Make a List option too for each theme.  

 This little craft is in the November pack along with these little I am thankful cards.

The kids enjoyed these because they could pick and choose and make them personal.

And, another craft from October.  This was S is for...and they had to pick and choose "S" words.

 Here's another puzzle activity.  :)  Always need to practice CVC.

 Something else my kids like are these Sound Superhero cards.  They have to use beginning sounds to figure out how to spell each word for the picture.  It's interesting.

If you have my Brown Bear activity you have some color word versions of this same activity...so I though why not bring it back!  Oldies are goodies right?!?!

 Counting and writing!

 Here's another activity.  Notice how pretty much every activity is based around the writing rings.  

So many options!

So, hopefully if you have my writing units this helps a little to see it in action.  If you don't have any of them I would like to give you an opportunity to win one of your choice!!  

Just leave a comment below this post telling me what you'd like to try and don't forget to leave your E-MAIL address.  

I'll choose a winner...or two tomorrow night!  

If you already own one, go ahead a comment too telling me what you like about it and you could win another one!