Seasonal Freebie

Free Valentine’s Day Gift Tags for Students

Skip the sugar, while saving time and money, when you download these FREE Valentine’s Day gift tags for students!

⎯ Science and Social Studies ⎯

Penguin Activities in Kindergarten

Hi, friends!  Let’s be honest…penguin week (well, it’s actually two weeks) are my most favorite weeks of the whole year!  There is just so much to do regarding math, science, social studies and literacy!  It’s one of those topics that easily extends itself across the curriculum!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

 

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience.  Any purchases made through one of our links earns us a small commission, which helps to support the blog so we can continue sharing content like this with you.  All views and opinions expressed are purely our own.

We kicked off our penguin unit with a fun poem all about penguins!  This little ditty is to the tune “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!
Of course, we had to practice waddling like a daddy penguin!  We were so careful not to drop our egg on the floor.  We even timed how long it took us to waddle back to our seats.  Boy, waddling sure is hard work!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!
Speaking of carrying an egg on top of your feet, we also learned all about the life cycle of a penguin…including a few important vocabulary words such as incubate, brood pouch, regurgitate (which we thought was disgusting!) and fledgling.

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

This life cycle anchor chart really helped us create a visual representation of the penguin life cycle.

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!
One of my favorite books to use during our penguin unit is The Emperor’s Egg by Martin Jenkins.  It tells all about the life cycle of a penguin.  We actually created the above anchor chart as we read the book.  Plus, the illustrations are gorgeous, and it fit in perfectly with our Penguin Life Cycle craftivity!
This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

We also enjoyed reading these nonfiction penguin readers from Crayons and Cuties in Kindergarten!  My kiddos begged to read a new one each day!  They just couldn’t get enough!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

I especially loved that they were written with kid friendly words that helped reinforce many of the sight words we were learning.

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

The kiddos even wanted to read them during our Daily 5 routine!  One student would read a page, while the other student would check for understanding.  We simply asked “who is this page about” and “what is this page about.”

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Now, no penguin unit would be complete without some penguin crafts!  We used these Penguin Flap Books as a culminating activity to help solidify our learning.  First, we made the penguin craft.

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Then, we used the penguin tree map to review all we had learned.

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Each kiddo used their completed tree map to help them finish the inside of our Penguin Flap Books.  These were a huge hit with not only the students, but also other teachers, school visitors and parents!  Gah!  Their illustrations are just the cutest!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

 

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

 

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

We chose to use the can, are, have templates, but this set also includes templates for penguin facts, penguin diagram, penguins vs. birds, penguin life cycle, penguin predators, penguin diet and penguin habitat.

This is the perfect culminating penguin activity to your penguin unit! Simply use the graphic organizers throughout your penguin unit to gather all of the information you are learning about these aquatic birds! Then, choose from one of three flap book templates to create your "All About Penguins" flap book! Plus, review basic shapes as you are making the penguin flap books!

And how about this cute penguin craft our art teacher completed with the kids?!  They looked adorable hanging in the hallway!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

We even integrated our penguin learning into our math instruction.  Did you all know that an Emperor Penguin can grow to four feet tall?!  Of course, we had to measure ourselves by laying next to our four foot Emperor!  Then, we used some penguin cards to measure the height of the Emperor in nonstandard units.

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Once we figured out his height, we worked with a partner to measure our nonstandard height.  Some of us were shorter than an Emperor, some taller, and a few of us were the exact same size!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Our most favorite penguin activity was the blubber experiment!  Simply place two large Ziploc bags inside each other.  Fill the inside between the two bags with Crisco, roll the top down and secure with Duct Tape.  My kiddos happily called this the “blubber bag.”

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

We followed the scientific method while conducting our little experiment.  Therefore, we made a hypothesis and tested the ice water without the “blubber bag.”  We described the water.  It was freezing!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Then, we placed the “blubber bag” inside the water and inserted our hand into the “blubber bag.”

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

We learned that the blubber helped insulate our hand and keep it warm, much like the blubber helps keep a penguin’s body warm!  Grab the FREE recording sheet below!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

At the listening station, we listened to If You Were a Penguin by Wendell and Florence Minor.  It tells all about the things penguins can do, such as “fly underwater,” “sing a duet,” “live on land but get really wet,” “wear a tuxedo,” “live underground or on top of the ice,” and our most favorite, “toboggan.”  After listening to the story, we completed a simple response sheet to check for understanding.

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Some of us made text-to-self connections!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

Grab the response sheet below!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!
I hope you were able to find some fun penguin ideas to use in your classroom!

This post has so many integrated penguin activities, covering each content area, as well as penguin crafts to display the students’ learning! Grab the FREE penguin blubber experiment printable to use with your Kindergarten and primary students!

If you’re looking for more penguin fun, head on over to my “Penguins” board on Pinterest!

Don’t forget to waddle on over to these other blogs for more penguin activities and freebies!

Ashley Sharp Pos Bio Image

Ashley Sharp

As a dedicated Kindergarten teacher for nearly 20 years, I believe the words “fun, play, and creativity” can sit right alongside the words “developmentally appropriate, engaging, and rigorous.” Learning is meant to be fun and messy!

More Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

12 responses to “Penguin Activities in Kindergarten”

  1. Jennifer Drake Avatar
    Jennifer Drake

    Great ideas Ashley! I love the response sheet and will be adding that to my plans for penguin week(s)! I am so glad your kiddos loved the readers and it warms my teacher heart to read that they wanted to read them repeatedly!
    Jenn
    Crayons & Cuties In Kindergarten

  2. Elyse Rycroft Avatar
    Elyse Rycroft

    Love your ideas, Ashley! Great idea to get children waddling like a penguin!
    Elyse 🙂

  3. Lori Raines Avatar
    Lori Raines

    We make penguins out of paper of foam core and use wiggly eyes. We also have a poster of an emperor penguin and the children come up to it to see if they are taller or shorter than the penguin.

  4. Ellen Coan Avatar
    Ellen Coan

    Great ideas! One of my favorite books is "Penguin Chick" by Betty Tatham.

  5. Mary Love Strange Avatar
    Mary Love Strange

    I like to read The Emperor's Egg when teaching about penguins. Thanks for sharing some more great ideas!

  6. Samantha Rigby Avatar
    Samantha Rigby

    My favorite penguin book is "Tacky the Penguin". My students are always laughing when I read a Tacky book and beg for more. 🙂

  7. Ms. Hoag Avatar
    Ms. Hoag

    I love Tacky the Penguin!

  8. Mrs. S Avatar
    Mrs. S

    This is my first year teaching 1st grade so I am building my unit for this grade. We did it at 6th grade last year. 🙂 I love the Tacky series.

  9. Cindyp94 Avatar
    Cindyp94

    I love love love penguins. I plan on reading both fiction and nonfiction books to my firsties.

  10. Kelsey Bryant Avatar
    Kelsey Bryant

    I'm excited to try out the blubber experiment this year. Thanks for the freebie! 🙂

  11. Mila Avatar
    Mila

    Hi there,

    Great activities! Love it! I was just wondering if I am able to edit your Blubber Experiment so that I can change the words to french since I teach the french portion and really want this awesome recording sheet? Let me know!!

  12. ang Avatar
    ang

    cant wait to get!