Penguins!

This week my kinders and I have been learning about penguins! It is a very short mini-unit that we do, but it is a fun topic when we start learning about winter. I usually try to hold off on learning about snow until we get some snow in the area, so the penguins are a good winter topic while we wait for some flakes. 

On the first day, we read the book Cool Penguins. I bought it for $1 from Scholastic, and it is a great informational penguin book. We then did a turn and talk to discuss what we learned about penguins, and then wrote penguin facts in our journals. 

The next day, we start by making a penguin craft. Students are given tracers and construction paper for the belly, head, and wings, and are given construction paper and crayons to make eyes, beaks, hair, feet, etc. After cutting tracing and cutting, students are given total reign over putting their penguin together. I don't like to give students models because I feel it is their craft to complete as they see fit. It is certainly interesting to see how each child's penguin turns out; many of them are such great representations of each student!

After the penguins are completed, we come back to the carpet and read the book Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere. Even though this book is informational, it uses fun illustrations that the students absolutely love. After reading, students again turn and talk about one penguin fact that that want to write about.  Students then go back to their seats and write one penguin fact on the belly of their penguin.

Here is the bulletin board of our penguins:

Here are close-ups of a few penguins. You can easily see from this the different stages of writing that my students are in. Just as each craft represents each student, each child's writing represents them as well. I believe in allowing students to work at their own developmental level, whether they are currently writing one word, one sentence, or one paragraph. 

 

 

Our last day of penguins is spent with Tacky! We read the book Tacky the Penguin, and this is a great opportunity to discuss fiction vs. non-fiction text. Students love the Tacky story, and are able to clearly understand how this text is different from the previous penguin books that we read. After reading, students complete a page where they write and illustrate their favorite thing about Tacky (sorry, I forgot to snap pictures!)

I hope you all enjoy our penguins, please comment and let me know what you think!