What better Winter Lesson Plan to teach than about the loved arctic animal, the penguin? With these suggestions, you can create an entire lesson plan around it, while focusing on teaching your preschoolers through play. The activities below offer lessons in math skills, reading skills, seriation skills and more! Introduce this theme unit during Circle Time by reading Penguins, Penguins Everywhere by Bob Barner [Chronicle Books, 2007].
Penguin Felt Board Activities
End circle time with a felt board activity using laminated penguin cutouts with velcro attached for easy sticking. Work on verbal and visual counting skills by singing “Ten Little Penguins” (tune of “Ten Little Indians”) with the last verse changed to “ . . . swimming in the sea.”
Further this center activity by providing matching colored scarves and hats, encouraging children to put matching colors on each penguin. Enhance seriation skills by having the penguins 10 different sizes from smallest to tallest.
Penguin Math and Science Activities
Use the popular magnet fishing game activity with numbered fish and dotted penguin belly’s. Have the children clothespin the dotted penguins (dot ranging from numbers 1-10) to enhance their fine motor skills and then take turns fishing out the numbered fish to feed the penguins with. Help them match the numbers on the fish to the same amount of dots on the penguin’s belly. Let them use another clothespin to attach the fish to the penguin’s belly (side).
Scientific Thought on Penguins
Begin each circle time by asking one or more penguin questions, being sure to tally the answers on a small sheet of poster board:
- What kind of animals are penguins? (birds but give several choices on the chart like rodents, fish, and mammals)
- Do penguins fly? (no)
- Are penguins found south or north of the equator? (south - - use map or globe for visual reference)
- How long can a penguin hold its breath under water? (list student’s name on this chart and put their answers below their names. The correct answer is about 3 minutes)
- What do penguins eat? (fish, but have other choices: bugs, ice, plants . . . )
Penguin Ice Experiment
Freeze a long pan of water and have on hand several objects, some that will slide on the ice and some that will not (cotton balls, dry beans, piece of felt, plastic penguin figurine, etc.). Create a chart for this activity “Will It Slide?” with columns listing the Item, Prediction and Outcome. Complete this science experiment, encouraging all students to give a prediction and recording it on the chart. Refreeze the block of ice so it’s ready to play with again at center time.
Penguin Reading Activities
Other than reading some great penguin books in circle time and providing plenty of reading options during center time, you can create a special File Folder Game to further work on your preschooler’s phonics skills. In your file folder game have cutouts of penguins with pictures on their belly’s. For example, a picture of: a pan, a cat, a fish, an egg, etc. Have bow-tie or fish laminated manipulatives with the beginning letter of each picture on them.
The object of the game is to match the fish/bow-tie letter with the picture. “P” would match to the penguin with the “pan” on his belly and so forth. For more of a challenge, put the entire word on the manipulative. To make it easier, have the color of the letters or the manipulatives themselves match the color of the picture on the penguin’s belly.
Create a poster board pocket game, reverting the above game by putting letters on the pockets (you can design the pockets to look like penguin faces if desired) and having several picture cards available for them to slip in the proper pocket. A penguin picture card, for example, would go into the letter “P” pocket and so forth.
There are lots more ideas to utilize when teaching the penguin theme unit. First School's website has a few craft ideas, as well as DLTK Kids which provide some penguin patterns to use for the above mentioned activities.
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