This week we wrapped up our Penguin Unit. I love being able to spend three weeks on one unit. My students become such masters when it comes to their knowledge on penguins. I hear them using their penguin vocabulary all throughout the day...it is awesome!
My students did 'A Blizzard of Sight Words' during centers. They loved searching around the room for the snowflakes...that is the only snow they have ever seen down here in South Florida ;) We also worked on what numbers come next and our beginning and ending sounds. Some of my students are still having some difficulty hearing those ending sounds, so this was the perfect practice for them!
Today, our last day of the unit, we had a ‘Penguin Party!’ My students still had to do their four morning centers. But, today they were all penguin related (they got to skip reading groups). Our four centers were:
1. It’s Feeding Time! Where students had to ‘feed’ the penguins the fish to spell their sight words correctly.
2. Fishy Word Blends, working on sh, th, and ch.
3. Poetry: I’m A Little Penguin (from Deedee Wills January Poems Pack). We have been singing this poem all week. My students’ have loved it! Today they glued it into their poetry notebooks and illustrated it.
4. Brrr! Before and After, where students’ chose an ABC card and wrote the letter that came before and after the letter they chose.
When we were finished, we made this DELICIOUS penguin! I think I ate 5 Oreos today. Just a little tip if you want to try these penguins in class...use double stuffed Oreos. They twist apart so much easier!!
Then we participated in some Penguin Relay Races! The kids had a blast with this! What was really cracking me up was listening to them calling each other daddy and mommy. When they would pass the 'egg' to the next person, they would say, "Give the egg to Daddy Drew!" It was too funny!
To finish off our Penguin Party day, we watched Happy Feet. Watching a movie after you just spent three weeks teaching about the subject, is great! My students were saying, 'look at that penguin tobogganing!' and 'look at the penguin rookery!' They were even pointing out the different kids of penguins. They got to see penguin regurgitate, the mom's take the journey to the sea in search for food, etc. It was awesome!!
We had so much fun!!
On Monday we are going to begin our three week unit on bears! I am going to be using my new Bear Unit...
