Arctic Animals: Penguins

We had such a fun week learning about penguins! We researched a different type of penguin each day on PebbleGo: Emperor penguins, Adelie penguins, Gentoo Penguins, & King Penguins. We learned about their characteristics, habitat, food, & life cycle.

We wrote about different types of penguins each day during writing groups. (Their writing has improved tremendously in the last month!)

We felt really sad for Dad Emperor Penguins because they have to stand on the ice for 2 months with the egg on their feet... with no food & they sleep standing up! I said I'd be realllll grumpy! :) On Thursday, we tested out our penguin dad life skills and had egg races across the room! The kids loved this & one kid said to another kid, "You've really got the penguin spirit!"

Some of our friends decided hopping was more efficient & they were right... but I said their poor chicks had some serious headaches!

Because we have been learning about arctic animals, we learned a new literacy center during reading groups on Friday: "Don't Break the Ice!" with CVC words & CVC words+digraphs.

They have to "tap out" and blend the word to read it before they can hit it with the ice axe...

They LOVED this!

Ask Your Child About:

-Phonics: digraphs & decoding CVC words

-Phonemic Awareness: middle sounds

-Writing: subject verb agreement

-Reading: strategies- chunky monkey & skippy the frog

-Math: geometry- shapes: sorting by shape (naming), size, color, attributes (straight sides, curved sides, number of sides, number of corners)

-Science: life science (arctic animals)- habitats, life cycles, etc!

FYI:

-We are out of extra snacks! If you're willing to donate some, I will happily take them!

-100th Day is Friday, February 1st. Look for information sent home about this fun day next week!

-We are loving the Pennies for Patients fundraiser. They are super into sabotaging 1st & 2nd grade! ;) We have another week to collect change/dollars!