Penguin and Polar Activities for Prescool

There are so many fun themes and activities that I love to use in the long winter months of Wisconsin.  One of my favorites is Penguins.  Why?  Penguins are interesting, cute and there are so many movement activities and crafts that can be incorporated into your lessons.  The activities below are a part of a unit, click (here) to check it out.

Kids LOVE facts.  I always start out this unit reading a factual book.  Penguins are unique birds and your students will eat this up!  I always use some sort of a comprehension graphic organizer to help them store all of the facts in their brain.  

I love to use this crown the first day of our unit.  They keep it at school throughout the week for movement activities.  I like to have the boys and girls glue the facts around the crown.  They can discuss the facts as they build them.  

I love the Emperor's Penguin by Jane Chapman.  The Emperor penguin is one of the most well known penguins.  The boys and girls are always excited to talk about baby penguins.  

The boys and girls also enjoy measuring themselves next to the emperor penguin.  I like to write the words taller and shorter on the board and we discuss how many children are taller and how many are shorter than an emperor penguin.

To help the boys and girls remember all of the facts that we have learned about penguins, I love to complete an interactive fact book throughout the week.  The boys and girls love sharing this book with their families.

I love to use the cute penguin theme to strengthen skills in the areas of literacy an math as well.  The boys and girls help the penguin fish for food.  They will identify the number and feed it to the penguin.  The boys and girls build on their number sense by matching penguins to numbers in large group.  Then, they will color the matching number on penguins in this cute reproducible.

 We continue to work on sorting symbols as letters or numbers throughout the year.  I like to practice it each month using different activities.  We continue to work on uppercase letter identification as well.  My children love write the room. I attach the printable to a clipboard and tape the center cards around the room.  As they find the letter, they will color the matching letter on their printable.

 The sensory table is one of my favorite areas of the classroom.  For our penguin unit I add snow (of possible) or I freeze large chunks of ice in ziplock bags and containers and put it into water, along with a penguins.

 In the centers or learning tubs, I like to place additional activities.  Each activity is working on important skills to help students grow in the areas of literacy and math, as well as fine motor skill development.  Click (here) to check them out.

 If you are looking for homework ideas, or supplementary materials for preschool check out the pages below.  I am not a huge fan or worksheets for this age group, however, now that I have children that age I have seen how much they enjoy them.  It makes them feel big like their older brothers and sisters.  If you use this as homework, it gives parents a glimpse into what their child is working on.  The ideal age is mature 4-6.