Tot and Preschool Time Week of Nov 4-8 More Penguin Fun

We didn't do very much for school this week. We continued on with our habitats for Penguins.  Here are the finished snow scenes.

Hannah's

Harold's

Amelia's

Tabitha

Then I remembered the Global Art book we reviewed over the summer had a section on Antarctica, so I found a fun snowflake craft.

I was staring at this shoebox which has a little pompom sized hole in the side, thinking it would make a fun activity for Harold.

Hide the Pompoms:

Peek-a-boo

Oh, wait, dump the pompoms.

Harold also likes to use this activity cube at times. It keeps him busy when we try to get work done.

What would a letter P unit be without some pudding. Harold and Hannah were my helpers in the kitchen to make some Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding.

Pouring in the pudding mix.

Pouring in the milk.

Mixing the pudding.

Don't forget to add the peanut butter, two heaping tablespoons to be exact.

And the reward for being such good helpers?

Yummy!!

Then mommy added the pudding to their P muffin tins in the form of penguins.

This week at co-op the preschool class made turkeys.

They colored the bodies.

And glued on tail feathers.

I had them rip strips of fall-colored construction paper into little pieces.

Harold's

Hannah's

(I love that she tried to write her name. I can see the H's!)

I think most of our learning about penguins this past week came from the books we read at rest time. We read some informational books and some fun "pretend stories that can't really happen," as Amelia called them.

Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers

A cute little story about a penguin and a boy. The boy thinks the sad-looking little penguin who knocks on his door is lost, so they embark on an adventure to return him to the South Pole. He discovers that he wasn't lost after all.

Don't Be Afraid Little Pip by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

Another cute little story that helps reassure young children that they do not need to be afraid. Little Pip is afraid of learning to swim for the first time and would much rather fly like the other birds. 

Penguins by Liz Pichon

In this book the penguins live in a zoo instead of in the wild. One day a little girl drops her camera into the penguin enclosure and the penguins have a grand old time with it. I love the pictures that she finds after she develops her film.

A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis

Every day the colors are the same: black, white and blue. Edna, the little penguin feels there must be some other colors in the world. She sets off to find them and when she does she asks her friends to join her. 

Amazing Animals: Penguins by Valerie Bodden

In this informational book we learned a little bit about different penguins. Each double page spread consists of a full page color photograph with the other page being a short paragraph of information with some new vocabulary being learned as well. 

My favorite informational book tells the story of the mother penguins. So many of the other books focused on the father staying behind with the egg and newborn chick or on the family together. In 

A Mother's Journey by Sandra Markle and Alan Marks

we follow the new mommy emperor penguins as they head for the sea. There are a lot of descriptive words that help tell of their journey. The illustrations really help to make this a memorable book. 

We still have a few more penguin books we haven't read yet. I will share the remainder next week as we conclude our Penguin unit.