February 2015 – Patties Classroom

Check out our cute penguin art and acrostic poems.

Last week We learned about Macaroni Penguins, Emperor Penguins, and Chinstrap Penguins. And then we read lots of penguin books and stories. I got the information I read the kids from this freebie at TPT. It also had a wordsearch and a cute dot to dot and some vocabulary cards we cut and used.

Then I had the kids brainstorm words that began with PENGUIN. And we wrote them in a big list across the whiteboard. Some of the kids came up with phrases such as “up on an iceberg” or “noisy birds” or “not at the North Pole”.

Then we wrote our own Penguin Acrostic poems on this cute paper I found and added the PENGUIN to. I love how they turned out.

Penguin Art and Acrostic Poems

The kids did a great job on their Penguin Arcrostic Poems!!

I also read the class my favorite Children’s book; Tacky the Penguin. He is an odd bird that is not accepted in his group, but he ends up saving the other penguins from Hunters. He saves the day. And everybody loves him after that. Kind of like the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer story. He saved the day too!

Penguin Art and Acrostic Poems

Very nice Job on these poems guys! I am so proud of you all!

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This cute penguins art and acrostic poems made a darling bulletin board

ANYHOO, we had to make some cute Penguins to go with our little Penguin Acrostic Poetry. Here is what I came up with. The kids are not really great at cutting yet, but I think they did a fabulous job. These little eyeballs were very tricky too! I made a bunch of bow ties like Tacky the Penguin wears, using some scrapbook paper scraps I had at home. When they were done we did a cute wordsearch.

This is our cute bulletin board for February. I just love it!

Put on your tux was my favorite phrase. Super cute!

Lots of penguins make lots of noise, don’t ya know?

These kindergarteners had really good handwriting too. Awesome!

Then they chose little ski caps from scrapbook and colored paper and topped them with some fuzzy balls. The eyeballs I got on TPT in a kit of freebies on the Penguin theme. Check them out HERE. I had them do this addition and subtraction page using the cute counters I have on every desk. We have lots of fun with the cute variety of math mats and math counters I’ve put together. Check some of them out HERE. And we did this for a center during Penguins Day. It is a cute math matching activity. HERE.

We also did this math game where you roll 2 dice, add together, then ADD 1 or TAKE AWAY 1 and then cover THAT number! It was a little more challenging! But the kids loved it!

I used this stencil of a penguin to cut out the black body, the white belly and the arms (sort of). I actually used this one and then made a slimmer version, and then a short version. Then the kids weren’t all exactly alike. They just chose the two they liked and put them together and glued them down on pretty brights papers. I used blue, green, purple, pink, orange and red and yellow backgrounds.

This title page for our bulletin board I found HERE. A really cute GRAPHING activity that is also a freebie is HERE.

I used astro bright paper to back the black and white penguins with. I think that always adds a little zing to the art project. It also would have been cute with a watercolored blue and purple and white background.

Then we put on these cute eyeballs after cutting them out. I think this was the hardest part for the kiddos. Many an eyeball got cut to pieces before all 23 of them had a good pair. haha. They added their flippers in any sort of way. Some are flipping theirs up high like their penguin is waving. So cute!

Penguin art and Acrostic Poems

They DO use their beaks a lot, don’t they?

If you have older students, I have read the play as a choral read together when I taught 1st and 2nd grade. Most of the kids can read the words by now. The Grandview Library has a freebie copy of the play HERE.

And penguins have lots of new chicks every year. For G she wrote Graceful. So sweet.

Penguin Art and Acrostic Poems

Then we made our own beaks folding a piece of orange bright paper and cutting out a triangle. This way it looks 3D like the penguins are quacking. Then I cut out a bunch of sets of feet and everybody chose ones they liked. Another grade could probably cut their own out but we wanted to save some time. Then they added the hats and bow ties. The hats I just freehand cut, and then they glued down a band over the top with the corresponding color, and we all chose a fuzzy ball to glue on top of the sweater hats.

Lastly I punched out some little snowflakes and they glued 2 down wherever they wanted. Here these little men are! I love them so much!

I always make a giant Penguin and write facts the kids remember from what I’ve read to them. Then we use this as a mini report starter. Kids can copy some of the facts they see. This year I decided to do an acrostic instead. But this is also great to use for brainstorming words with the P E N G U I N letters.

Some years I’ve had the kids write their own Penguin Stories using Tacky the Penguin as the Stencil Story. I start with a story frame and the kids fill in the missing parts according to their character.

One year we did Winter Poetry. That gave me the idea to do some Penguin Acrostics. That is a very EASY way to have young kids start writing. They can copy words to go with the acrostic letters.

We have to sing a bunch of fun songs too of course. This one is to the ABC Tune or Itsy Bitsy Spider or Jimmy Cracked Corn or whatever fits.

Last year I had 2nd graders so we painted footprints and made our Penguin art out of our black footprints. It was very messy. The baby penguins are out of thumbprints. It took a few tote trays of water on the floor and lots of paper towels to wash and dry those little feet off! The hats and scarves are painted on. You would have to be sure your kids are old enough to design a penguin.

One year I had them do a funny story and some tear art penguins. That is my favorite, but I can’t find the time with half day kindergarten. It takes a lot of time to do tear art. And these penguin stories were soooooo cute. I loved them so much.

They had to have a problem that matched one their character would have. Then they had to have 1 friend, and a solution, and a setting. My favorite was the Katy Perry Penguin who broker her microphone while doing a concert. It was a hoot.

This penguin was also a singer. Lots of rock stars started out in my classroom. tee hee.

Here’s my hubs and I at the Ice Castles last year in Midway, Utah. They were awesome. This year they are in Park City right near Soldier Hollow HERE. It is so fun to do winter activities in the snow. And it is fun to be creative using penguins as your theme.