Penguins, Winter, and more Penguins

Hello Friends!!!  It's that time of year when my class learns about Penguins.  This unit is always fun for me to teach because of the fascination, and curiosity the kids have about Penguins.  In fact, they are still talking about Penguins, which makes me happy that they got so much out of it. 

Here are the highlights of ...

PENGUINS, WINTER, and more PENGUINS 

I started out the unit with a KWL chart. We charted what they already knew, and wanted to know about Penguins.  

I read a variety of non fiction books about Penguins to my class.  These are a few of my favorites.

I taught a mini lesson about the continents & oceans, and then we marked where Penguins live around the world.

We learned about the parts of a Penguin by using this diagram.

After reading a few non fiction books about Penguins we completed this anchor chart about what they learned.

The kids used the chart above to write three sentences about Penguins.

 My class made their own Penguin by cutting different shapes out of construction paper.

Here are a few of my favorite YouTube videos about Penguins.

We focused our learning on the Emperor Penguins- this particular video is amazing!

We also observed Penguins by watching these two live Penguin cams. 

Sea World Penguin Cam

Monterey Bay Aquarium Penguin Cam

Moving on to Winter...

My class painted these cute snowmen, and measured how tall they were with linking cubes.  Also, they practiced making an addition sentence with the eyes and nose of their snowman. This idea came from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten.

My class used watercolors to make a snowflake.

We learned all about winter by reading these non fiction books.

We recorded our learning on a bubble chart (forgot the picture).

Here is a picture of one of my winter themed centers.  I wrote cvc words on blue paper and then crumpled them up like a snowball.  The kids had to read the word and place it on the correct chunk. We played this game whole class a few times before it went into my center rotation.

After this post I'm so ready for spring!!!! How about you?