Penguin Unit in Kindergarten

Teaching the Penguin Unit was definitely one of my favorites during the year! The kids learn so much and there are so many fun, interactive, activities to do!! 

I think a lot of kindergarten teachers have moved away from themes like Penguins because it 'doesn't fit into their curriculum anymore'. However, you really CAN incorporate this into your curriculum-your living/nonliving unit, real/pretend, how animals grow and change, and even your life cycle science unit. Of course it is very easy to incorporate all of your reading and writing skills too! Check out my framework HERE that I presented to my administration :)

We always started off our unit by working together to fill out the 'K' and 'W' of our KWL.

We usually always do that whole group in the morning; however, this particular time I had the students write about it during our writing block and they did wonderfully! I did tell them that they had to write one thing they 'knew' and one thing that they were 'wondering'.

During our nonfiction units we also used our 'word splash'. We 'splashed' the words on at the beginning of our unit, then we listened for them as we read throughout the unit.  If we heard a word, I would move the word to the side and we would discuss the meaning.

I had students turn and talk to discuss their new learning and discuss the word splash words. We did this every day! It helps them retain all of the information!

There are so many wonderful center ideas, if you are doing centers anyways, then why not do them thematically?!

At the writing center they did this cute drawing activity. Students will be drawing lots of penguins during writing so this is the perfect way to teach them! At the bottom of the page they wrote about penguins as well.

At our word work center students put their penguin cards in alphabetical order.

Then they used their best handwriting to record the letters.

They read and followed the directions on the activity sheet to color in the correct amount of penguins during math centers.

We were also working on reading ten frames. In 'What Comes Next?' they chose a card, read the ten frame, and recorded that number. Then, they wrote the next 3 numbers. 

To work on reading and sight words, students built simple sentences in the pocket chart and practiced reading them to one another with a pointer.

 There are different activity sheet options in my penguin pack; however, I had students record the sight word 'is' for extra practice.

In 'Time to Find Food' students counted the number of penguins and the number of fish on their card and added the numbers together.

 Another great sight word activity, 'It's Feeding Time!' Students built the sight word on their penguin and recorded the word three times on their activity sheet.

'Penguin pairs' works on rhyming words.

 We also worked on reading and sorting real CVC words vs. nonsense CVC words.

In writing there are a couple of options to choose from. I've done both and can't decide which one I like better!

 We've created an 'All About Penguins' book FULL of non-fiction information that we learned throughout the unit.

We've also used this cute penguin craft as our 'All About Penguins' book! Either way students are learning SO much!

Some of my favorite videos to watch and listen to during the penguin unit are below:

All Things Animals: Penguins episode

All About Penguins for Kids

Top Ten Funny Penguin Videos

Jack Hartmann Penguin Dance

I've linked other videos in my Animal Framework at the top of the post as well!

Penguin Craft (Informational)

We LOVE learning about Penguins!! It may be one of my favorite units to teach too.  As we read our informational penguin books, we add all of our learned info onto a KWL.

I ask my kids questions from the KWL every morning before we read another book to make sure that they are remembering all of the info that they have learned. For instance, 'raise your hand if you can tell me three different things that penguins eat.' My kids LOVE showing what they know!!

So we decided to make this cute informational penguin so students can really show off everything that they have learned!

We make one page a day so students don't rush through their work. 

Then when we are done, we staple our books onto the belly of our penguin craft.

These cute penguins make an amazing bulletin board display. We have gotten so many compliments from not only fellow teachers (who are very impressed with our work) but our principal too!

You can grab this informational penguin craft by clicking on the image below.

You can also grab this similar informational bear craft.

Penguins, Penguins, and More Penguins!

We just finished our second week of learning all about penguins. We are focusing on penguins to meet a lot of our reading standards; however, we are learning about animals in general during science (how animals move, real/pretend, living/nonliving). 

This week I took tons of center pictures! Whenever I have the camera out my students automatically try their best because they want their picture taken! haha They don't even have any idea where the pictures go! 

One of our centers was a 'label it' center. I was watching to see which students remembered that chicks had 'down'. 

We need lots and lots of practice with addition and subtraction! This week we did some 'Sneaky Seal Addition'. 

I left unifix cubes at the center for students to use and they definitely helped!!

As always, we are working on sight words. Students had to 'feed the fish' by spelling the sight words on the penguins. 

We also need a lot of work still with rhyming (independently). Some of my kids are having a hard time with this. Rhyming will definitely be a center we continue!

This week we also worked on ABC order. 

My focus for this center was actually handwriting. I am really trying to get them to write their letters all the way from the top to the bottom. These two were very proud of their work!

My students worked together to complete their CVC words, listening for the medial vowel sound. They did an awesome job! We went over the words beforehand so they would know what all of the pictures were.

During writing I gave each student their own 'All About Penguins' book. They feel so special having their own book and they can't wait to take it home to share with their parents!

Their books have five pages inside and a table of contents. They are allowed to work on any page they want as long as they take their time!

This little one wrote what penguins eat. He used our KWL to help him spell his words.

Another student chose to write all about penguin chicks! I loved his bottom illustration which is hard to see in the picture. He drew a mom penguin swimming to get her baby chick food. So cute! :)

All of these activities can be found in either my Penguin Unit on TPT or in my January Word Work pack.

Starting our new unit: Penguins

The start of a new unit is always so exciting! The children are so eager to learn! I think they are also super excited to see all the new books I take out for the unit and the new centers too! ;)

We always start our units with a KWL. I spend the first day discussing previous knowledge. I write EVERYTHING the children say in the 'K' column, even if I know the information is incorrect. We constantly review these facts and we will 'check' them if we find them to be correct or cross them out if they are incorrect.  I also write down everything the children are wondering. I love listening to their questions!

The first day we also do a 'status check'. This is when I ask them where they are on our learning scale. You can see a piece of our learning scale in the top corner of the picture below. For this unit, I had 4 children think they were a '1' on the scale and 16 children feel as if they were a '2'.  You can find my learning scale HERE.  I keep track of where they are because we revisit the scale at the end of our unit.

 The first day of our penguin unit I also had the children write down something they knew about penguins and something they were wondering. This was done during our writing block.  Keep in mind, at this point I haven't read them any books on penguins yet. They actually did great with this and I think I will incorporate this into every unit now. 

The second day of our penguin unit we read our first informational text on penguins. I read very few pages each day. I actually only read 3 pages, but the children retain so much more information when I read in smaller chunks. 

After I read a few pages I clapped my hands twice and said 'teach'. The children then clapped their hands twice and said 'okay'.  They turned to their carpet buddies and discussed the new information they learned. My children are experts now at questioning each other. I can hear them asking, 'What did you learn? Are you confused about anything? Are you wondering anything new?'

When they are done talking, I call on different buddies to share what they discussed. I add this information onto our KWL. If we read information that confirms anything we have already written in our 'K' column, then we 'check' it off.

The rest of the week we continue the same procedure. My children have already learned so much about penguins--and they have constantly been comparing penguins to bats (one of our previous units). I may need to make a venn diagram for this! ;)

During our centers we have been working on reading sight words and following directions:

We just wrapped up our addition chapter in math, but we still need a lot of practice! The children loved this spin and add game:

 I know throughout our unit the children will be drawing a lot of penguins. So before we start our non-fiction 'All About Penguins' book, I wanted to make sure they all knew how to draw one! We used one of Mrs. Miner's Guided Drawing activities to teach us! On their activity sheet I had them draw a penguin, make a setting for the penguin, and copy the sentence.

 All of the penguins came our adorable and each and every one of my students felt successful! Love that!

 They were supposed to copy the sentence 'She is a penguin.' But it doesn't look like we could get that sentence right! haha 'See is a penguin.' is the same thing, right?!  ;)  
Some of the boys refused to write 'She is a penguin.' So they wrote, 'He is a penguin.' instead haha.

 And this cutie must have missed the sentence that was at the bottom of Mrs. Miner's guided drawing sheet. She wrote her own sentence, but did great!

Can't wait to continue penguins next week! I am loving it!

All of these activities, including the whole group KWL and other whole group activities, are included in my Penguin Unit.

You can find my framework for this 4 week unit HERE or by clicking on the image below :)

Units used in this framework:

Reading in a Winter Wonderland

All About Penguins

All About Bears

January Word Work

Snowman Craft

Martin Luther King Jr. by Lyndsey Kuster

January Poetry Station by Deedee Wills

Animal Wax Museum by Tracy Tegeler