PLAYING WITH PENGUINS!!!
Welcome to our collection of Winter Learning Fun – a collection of relaxed and fun activities for winter-themed learning plans, snowed in days, or just plan learning fun! For this day, we “played” with penguins! We read a nonfiction book about penguins, watched a few videos from zoos, snacked on some penguin habitats, crafted a few penguins, and performed a science experiment. Read on to check out the details!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
WHAT TO WATCH
Around the time of our Penguin Day, there have been many zoos that have posted some footage of actual penguins wandering around the facility. These were really cool, since we could check out penguins from various places – sort of a super virtual field trip 🙂 Some of them have some educational content in there and others are just for the joy of watching cute little penguins!!!
- Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden : Home Safari Day – World Penguin Day
- Saint Louis Zoo: A Snowy Field Trip for the Penguins at St. Louis Zoo
- Woodland Park Zoo: Zookeeper Gets You Up and Close to a Baby Penguin
- National Geographic: Go Inside an Antarctic City of 400,000 King Penguins
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
For our snack of the day, we were able to pick up some penguin crackers. We also created a “habitat” for them using blue plates and the insides of apples for the igloos. Setting up the snack was almost as fun as eating it 🙂
READING
Reading is not just an important part of learning, it can also be fun if you pick the right books and theme! For our book of the day, we picked a National Geographic, non-fiction book that explained all about Penguins: their different parts, what they eat, their babies, and the different types. National Geographic books are usually great with balancing information & content for kids, & ours found this one really enjoyable 🙂
- National Geographic Kids: Penguins by Anne Schreiber
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to practice both their creative skills as well as their writing and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: PENGUIN, BIRD, SWIM…
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. Our writing prompt of the day was:
- If you were a penguin, what would be your favorite thing to do?
CRAFTS
For our craft of the day, we did splurge a bit (but saved some of the other pieces in the kit for another day). We picked up a kit of Klutz Sew Mini Animals and let them create the penguin for the craft of the day. You could also try out one of our more budget-friendly, DIY crafts: A DIY Pom Pom Penguin Craft.
STEM ACTIVITY
For our science activity, we performed more of an “open ended experiment”. We had some mini penguin figurines and asked the kids if they could build a boat or igloo for the penguins to stand on without getting wet. We added in a few items they could start with (jar tops, popsicle sticks, glue, rubber bands, etc). Quick note: if you have a peanut butter jar top and your penguins are light, it should hold the penguins without any other additions. It’s a great way to get them thinking while having fun!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our winter fun learning article! If you enjoyed this article, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Winter Fun & Winter Learning Fun Ideas!
Happy Learning!
