Being Penguins

      
I like costumes and I have quite a few miscellaneous pieces at home.  They
come in handy for many opportunities.  Like this week when we are talking
about penguins. 
       
I brought in my tuxedo tails for the children to try on to ‘be penguins’.  They
loved it.  The sleeves were so long that when they flapped their arms it looked
like wings.
                       
                   Of course I had to give it a try.

Grumble, Rumble, Gurgle, Roar

I found a story on line about a little penguin that hears a strange noise and realizes it’s his tummy rumbling.  So he sets off to find something to eat.  I like the story because of the stomach growl sounds that are repeated throughout the story and that it helps children learn about what penguins eat.
              
         You can listen to Whoopi Goldberg narrate the story on nickjr. 

                      I decided to make it into an oral story with props.

I’m a Papa Penguin

We’ve continued with our Penguin Shuffle adding a few more moves of what penguins do, like; swim and slide.  We showed our big buddies how to do the shuffle too.
    

This week we pretended to be Papa penguins and take care of an egg.

    Each child got a plastic egg to place on the top of their feet. 
      
Then we did a little shuffle.  It’s hard work to hold the egg in place.

              
Then last night, I couldn’t believe what I found while on Pinterest, a Papa Penguin poem.  You can find the poem at Little Book Lane website.  The tune is to “I’m a Little Teapot”. 
            
           Today we taught it to our big buddies.

Sorry the sound isn’t the best.

We’re Building an Igloo

Have you seen blogs that show how to build an igloo using milk jugs?  Here is one from Little Giraffes Teaching Ideas that I thought would be manageable.  It only needs about 130 jugs.  I'm sure we could collect that many.
                       
So during December I started asking friends, teachers and families from
                     StrongStart to begin to save jugs.
                  
     Last week the jugs started to be delivered and we started building.
  We placed yarn on the floor to help make the round shape, it turned out more
                                           like a horseshoe.

   
We had to wait a couple of days before we had enough to add another row.  But in the meantime the children found other ways to enjoy the igloo.  The jugs work well as drums.
  
And trying to take them apart was a popular activity, as well as playing with the
                                               loose jugs.


Just gluing the jugs together wasn’t strong enough so I started wrapping each row with packing tape.   As the walls got higher the children explored the inside and continued playing with the loose jugs.


Four rows high and we’re ready to start the beginning of the roof.  I attached a board across the opening so the row will be a complete circle.  Lots of jugs arrived today and these boys are placing them around to see if there is enough for the whole row.
 
       Or maybe they were just emptying the box so they could play with it.

  

This is how it looked at the end of the day.  

About 60 more jugs should be enough.  

Stay tune.

Measuring Up to a Penguin

Emperor Penguins are the largest penguin in the Antarctica. 
 
I decided to draw a life size penguin to post on the wall so
         we could measure the children.
        
Beside the penguin are papers for the children to print their
names depending on their size compared to the penguin.
  
         I’m taller.  I’m the same.  I’m shorter.
  
After measuring themselves the children decide how they compared and
               print their name on the correct paper.
  
                
I loved her approach, lifting her nose in the air to be a little taller.

Penguin Small Play

                          
                  I set up a small world play about penguins.  
  
  The big white blocks and the ice cubes light up and change colours.

 
This child was quite interested in the penguins and wondered what they eat.  One of the books on display was able to give him the answer in pictures.  
  
     Squid and fish.  I happen to have some in my storage room. 
                     I also brought out leopard seals.
 
   Leopard seals eat penguins, and penguins eat the squid and fish.

         
  Oh oh the seals are after the penguins, where can they hide. 
The boy suggested we need an igloo, we’ll work on that tomorrow.

Play Trays This Week

       
Peg and rings that I made myself.  The rings were another thrift store find that I painted red, yellow and blue but left the base of each peg stand plain.  I had the dowel at home and glued them into the rings.
          
          This tray was a favourite tray with toddlers.
    
I watched this child match the rings to the same colour.  His first attempt was on the yellow but then he changed his mind and put it on the blue.

       
    Setting the table by matching the dishes to their drawing.
             
It wasn’t very popular.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe if all four spots at the table had a placemat to set.  We may try that sometime.

        
Make a snowman by filling a glass jar with white cotton balls.  I saw this idea on Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails blog.  The snowman’s face is drawn on the jar which could be seen clearly when the jar was full.
      
We used tongs to grab the cotton balls and transfer them to the empty jar.
   
      But emptying the jar was the most fun.


     Number matching from Childcareland. 
Clip a clothespin onto the number that matches the one on the shirt.
  
This was the least used tray this week.  Even the parents didn’t know what could be done.  More parents may have encouraged their child if I had a card with instructions with it.