#16 - Penguin

[psalm126mama]

Mister Rogers on Amazon - $1.99 per episode or free with Prime

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Volume 4, Ep. 5 "Families (#1555) A Field Trip to See the Penguins at Sea World"
"Mister Rogers takes a field trip to Sea World to see the penguin families there. He talks about how every person in the world is different from everybody else. In the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, the cousin reunion takes place."

**Just for fun we also watched some episodes of Pingu on Netflix streaming. It is claymation. There is no dialogue, the penguin just makes little honking like penguin noises. My children enjoyed it.

We also enjoyed the following while eating lunch...
Netflix streaming-- Go Diegio Go! Season 1 Episode 6 "Pepito's Penguin School" & Season 2 Episode 7 "Macky the Macaroni Penguin"

Netflix streaming -- Wonder Pets Season 1 Episode 3 "Save the Unicorn/Save the Penguin"

[Yodergoat]

We enjoyed the beautifully illustrated book "Penguin Chick" by Betty Tatham, illustrated by Helen Davie, in the Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science series. Its focus is Emperor Penguins, and it details how the father lovingly cares for his egg while the mother is away. It also has a nice illustration of a chick's growth month by month, and this was a good chance to explain to my child that the seasons in Anarctica are opposite our own. This has been our favorite book so far for the penguin unit.

At the back of the book are several illustrations of some other types of penguins and a couple of activity suggestions. We enjoyed the first activity, "walk like a penguin." The book suggested that the child place a potato on his or her feet and try to walk (shuffle slowly along) without dropping the potato "egg." This was frustrating for Gail at first as she kept losing her egg (which of course subequently froze) but then she remembered that the male penguins rock back on their heels and point their toes upward to help hold the egg... this helped immensely and she was able to carry her egg to the designated finish line. She also enjoyed watching Momma attempt it.

The next activity was "toboggan like a penguin" and suggested that a child lay on a smooth floor and slide along as a penguin does on ice. Not quite as much of a challenge, but cute. I did not attempt this.

We also read some other books about different varieties of penguins, and her favorite is the Rockhopper, but we both agreed that the Emperor Penguin best fits the theme for the Penguin unit... "I show love to everyone, especially my family." The father's sacrificial love is beautiful!

We did watch the film, "March of the Penguins," which is a lovely movie but harsh at times. My girl was able to handle the scenes of chick death pretty well (we raise chickens and other animals and she is knows it can happen), but this could be too much for children sensitive to such things. Also, be warned that at the beginning of the film are a couple of references to "millions of years." There is also some artsy language peppered throughout in the narration that might confuse a child....stuff like "the hungry ice devours the chick," and "despite the winter's best effort" and such as that which might make it seem as if the cold and/or the winter is a living entity. Not a big deal to some, but we paused the movie and discussed these phrases because I do not want Gail to think of seasons and weather, which are in God's control, as living things with their own will. Just a heads up to others who may wish to watch the film. Otherwise, gorgeously filmed and very sweet to see the penguin familes!

[Yodergoat]

We made the "icebergs" as suggested for Day 3 in the first edition manual. This was lots of fun! Gail instantly noticed that not all of the iceberg is above the water, and we talked about how this can be a hazard for ships, etc.

But then we took it a step farther. We had used a deep white dishpan filled with water to float our icebergs in. I took this outdoors (the weather is nice today) and then we gathered plastic animals that would live in the area around Antarctica. We had one Schleich brand plastic penguin, it is either an Emperor or King, and a Schleich family of seals. Since we had watched a video slideshow of John Stott's (a Christian author) Falkland Islands birdwatching trip during our penguin unit, we decided that our icebergs could be near the Falklands and that the penguin was a King Penguin (there was a photo of a single King Penguin he saw in a colony of Adelies). The seals are "crab-eating seals," a real species found there. We added a plastic fish and a crab. So for the last hour, Gail has been sitting on our picnic table with this basin of water and the rapidly diminishing icebergs, acting out the lone King Penguin and his Crab-eating Seal friends! The noises emanating from out there are intriguing! I took lots of photos for our K memory book.

Gail was tempted to add a polar bear, but then remembered that they live in the North and the penguins live in the South!

[lea_lpz]

We did this cute and super easy paper plate craft for the penguin unit. The kids always enjoy an opportunity to use paint

http://www.craftjr.com/preschool-christ ... e-penguin/

Here is a list also of some non penguin, arctic animal related books we also read. I explained in geography about the difference between the north and south poles, Antartica vs. the arctic, where penguins live, etc.

1)Over in the Artic
2) In Arctic Waters
3) Hello Artic
4) The Lonely Pine
5)Artic from A-Z
6) The Mitten
7) Ice Bears
Polar Bear, Artic Hare
9)Elusive Moose
10) North: the Amazaing Story of Arctic Migration