We had a snow day in Texas, y’all!!! Okay, so maybe it was more like a snow dusting on my side of town but still, I was VERY excited! When January rolls around and snow becomes the topic of discussion, I don’t know about you but one of my favorite ways to celebrate the season is talking about winter animals; specifically, Penguins! If you are not new here, then you absolutely know how much I adore them. They make for a great weekly theme and there are just so many penguin activities that your students will truly love. You can do penguin crafts, penguin research, penguin math— ALL.OF. THE. PENGUIN.THINGS!
Well, that’s why I am here. I have a round-up of my favorite penguin activities and lesson ideas for you. I’ve also included a freebie that you won’t want to skip out on, so make sure you make it to the end!
Using shapes, students will have a great time recreating their waddling friends! The shape penguins activity requires students to build, then report the shapes they used by part, sides, and vertices. This serves as both a craft and geometry lesson! WIN-WIN! You can check out even more details right HERE.
If you’re looking to hone in on your students’ research skills, then have them “deep dive” into some juicy details about penguins! Check out THIS post for penguin research activity ideas and useful links!
Life-sized penguins, penguin presentations, penguin vocabulary, and so much more are included in this Penguin Parade! Spend a whole day doing all things penguin related with my Waddle With Me unit…there’s even a penguin test! Check out more details HERE.
Remember that freebie I told you about earlier? Well, here it is! Our special edition Rooted in Reading unit: Penguin Palooza and Penguin Research is a full week of ELA instruction focused on comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and of course—research! We use the books Flight School by Lita Judge and Penguin Problems by Jory John as our reading focus and just in case you want a sample of what you’re getting into, I pulled this penguin fact true or false activity straight from the unit to give to you for FREE below! {Amazon affiliate links included above.}
You simply cannot have SNOW much fun with these penguin activities without pairing them with a great read-aloud! Here’s a list of some of my favorite penguin picture books to add to your collection this winter. From comedic to informative, you won’t be disappointed!
Before I go, I have to share this BRAND NEW penguin resource with you! Students have 6 penguin word problems to solve. Once they are finished solving their word problems, students move the pieces of a penguin to check their work. This is the fun part… the answers are hidden under the penguin parts! So they get to solve word problems and build a penguin! You can see more about it HERE.
You can pin the image below so you don’t forget these ideas!
I hope these penguin activity ideas have been most useful for you and I would love to see how you use them in your classroom! Tag me on Instagram or Facebook @msamylemons with pictures of your penguin day! And before you go…
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Sample a day of Rooted in Reading with these lesson plans and activities for Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Grammar!
