Hello, Teaching Friends!
Well, who knew? January 20th was Penguin Awareness Day. Had I been
{aware} of that, I probably would have posted this yesterday! :)
If anybody's aware of penguins, I'm thinking it's probably our primary grade students. Have you noticed how many new resources have debuted just this year? I won't even try to list, but would love to direct you to a post by my friend Arlene at LMN Tree. Arlene has a wonderful talent for researching great topical books, links and other resources. Here's her
post about penguins!
I love to teach about penguins! My personal fascinations with them include ...
* They have huge dedication to their young ones even before they are born, as witnessed by the careful mom-to-dad foot-to-foot exchange of the egg, to protect it from the extreme cold.
* They are experts at walking on ice. I'm so jealous. If I'd made a walk-on appearance in
March of the Penguins, it would have turned into a slapstick comedy. I am ridiculously bad at walking on ice.
* They are tricksters. Some people (even big people!) are sure that penguins are not birds. Also, penguins are tricky in that some people are convinced that they live with polar bears. There are some truly gifted clip artists out there who have not yet gotten this message. Spread the word.
* They slide across the ice on their bellies. I mean, how fun is that? What kiddo wouldn't want to imagine himself sliding alongside them? Plus, it's called
tobogganing. Such a cool name for an amazingly funny (and efficient!) way to move on ice.
So, here's my latest humble contribution to the mountain of penguin resources out there. Your students will find word cards around your classroom and use them to complete a short reading passage about emperor penguins. Then they'll read the passage aloud with a friend to be sure the words make sense ... and along the way, get some extra practice with decoding and fluency.
Click here or on the picture above to download your copy! And keep reading for a few more "hidden freebies"!
If your students are in love with penguins, here are a few math resources you might like!
Click here to see this 56 page collection of card games, read the room activities, Bump game, I Have Who Has, four in a row - loads of first grade place value activities!
Here's what one teacher said about this place value set:
"
This product was jam-packed with absolutely everything I needed to make addition fun for my first grade classroom. There were so many choices of activities and the games provided were
perfect for differentiating instruction at multiple levels. Loved the creativity and thought put into this
excellent classroom resource that I will use year and year again."
Have you tried math riddle task cards? Here's a penguin set for practicing early addition and subtraction.
These elimination style riddles will have your students solving three addition and/or subtraction clues on each of the 24 cards to determine the Penguin's Missing Number. Recording page, answer key, themed 120 chart, and a board game are all included in this set.
Click here to see them!
Here are links to two
"oldie but goodie" penguin freebies!
* A board game that you can customize for your own spelling words, word wall words, etc. -
Slip Slidin' Spelldown.
All you'll need to do is supply your students with a word list for reference, the game board, and one die.
If you and your students enjoy winter resources like these (Penguins?? Snowmen??
Yes, please! ), then you might like to follow my
Winter at School board on Pinterest!
Happy Teaching!
