Learning about Penguins in Pre-K

As part of our "Polar Pal" unit, we did a mini unit on penguins. We learned all about the various types of penguins and the lands they inhabit.

We measured out and colored a life sized Emperor Penguin ...

and then measured ourselves against it.

Of course, we had to include "waddling" as part of our movement activities!

We learned quite a bit about penguin rookeries and how the daddy penguins care for the eggs. We practiced having the mommy penguins pass off the penguin egg to the daddy penguins. We had to remember to only use our feet since penguins don't have "hands". We also had to be careful not to let the egg drop to the freezing snow on the ground so the egg wouldn't freeze. This was much trickier than the children expected!

After the mommy penguins slipped off to find food and swim in the sea,

the daddy penguins had to learn how to stay warm, rotating themselves from the outside to the inside of the huddle. We also practiced waddling as a group, so everyone stayed warm. It was quite a challenge to get everyone moving in the same direction!

Our friend Ms. Christie game us this fabulous cardboard penguin cutout from the movie "Happy Feet". It's been a fun decoration and also helped illustrate how different baby penguins look from fully grown penguins!

(It's hard to tell from this, but it's actually about 2 1/2 feet tall!)  

Our "Perky Penguins" have been a bit hit in our school lobby. Be sure to check out "Perky Penguins in Pre-K" to read more about them!

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Making Heart Magnets for Valentines Day

These cute little heart magnets are so easy and fun to make, even for the smallest of hands. They make wonderful little gifts!


We used  Crayola® Model Magic® to form the hearts. This dough is so much fun to play with. The best way I can describe the consistency is to liken it to one of those orange circus peanuts--only a little more pliable. It does dry out, but again, like a dried circus peanut. Not like the flour doughs many of us create with.

We rolled some out and cut shapes with cookie cutters.

The great thing about working with Model Magic® is that you don't have to wait for the project to dry to paint it. We used watercolor panit sets, but really, just about any paint will work.

After the shapes have dried, we added simple magnets with sticky backing to the back of each shape. They always turn out quite nicely. 

When giving these as a gift, I like to let the kids dip the cookie cutters in tempra paint and decorate a paper lunch bag for wrapping paper. It adds a really nice touch!

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Pre-K

GUNG HAY FAY CHOY!!! Yesterday was the start of the Chinese New Year. It's the Year of the Dragon! We celebrated the occasion by reading a story and making paper lanterns to decorate our classroom. The children chose either yellow or red construction paper and decorated it however they wished.

They folded the paper in half and traced lines with a ruler. The next step was to cut on the line, without cutting all the way through. This year's group has really struggled with cutting skills, so this was great practice. 

We stapled them together to make a cylinder shape.

They turned out pretty cute! Later, we punched holes in the top and ran string through the top so we could hang them up in our classroom. 

I discovered this wonderful little lift -the- flap book, "Dragon's Dance" by Joan Holub. It has great illustrations, easy to understand text and is quite informative, giving the reader a nice glimpse of families celebrating Chinese New Year. It was a great way to introduce the holiday traditions some children celebrate! 

Gung Fat Hay Choy! Happy Year of the Dragon!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Here in Georgia, we occasionally have cool weather in January, but rarely is it cold enough for snow or ice. That doesn't stop us from really enjoying our winter unit and all the fun that that entails. You may have read about our "Faux Snow Day" on Prek and K Sharing. To help get us in the spirit, we decorated a playtent to make it an igloo, and later made a cute paper plate walrus to adorn it (above). We also made igloos with cotton....

and with marshmallows.

We also used cotton balls and our polar animals for sensory play...

We did a little ice fishing (and worked in some letter recognition)!

We made snowman windsocks....

We graphed our favorite polar animal: polar bear, walrus or penguin. What's your favorite?

We served up "hot cocoa" in our Hot Cocoa Stand....

And made wonderful "Snowman Snacks" from Donettes to snack on.... YUM!!!