This weather is for the Penguins!

It has been super cold here in Tennessee, so we've been learning about penguins! Here are some adorable examples of the pop-up baby Emperor Penguins that a couple of my talented 5th graders created.  They drew the penguins step by step with me, then colored them with colored pencils and outlined with my beloved Sharpies.  They then cut them out, made a zig- zag pop up tab out of the scraps, and proceeded to paint the background.  After the background was dry enough, we used double stick tape to attach the penguin to his habitat.  Needless to say, they were really proud of their creations!  To prepare for this lesson,  we watched a few videos from National Geographic Kids and BrainPop.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/animals-pets-kids/birds-kids/antarctica-emperor-penguins-huddle-vin-kids/  The other video won't come up, but I saved it on my computer at school.  I will see if I can get it to load from there.

I also showed them a video from BrainPop, but you have to have a subscription to play it.  If you do have one, just search for penguins. :)  These are all really short videos, but the students learned so much.  I have a globe I use often, so we looked at it, talked about the equator, and how all the penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere.  Then they named all the places they live.  (This info is on the BrainPop video.)  

The third graders made penguin collages, and they were pretty darn cute as well.  I received a donation from Newell Rubbermaid (makers of Sharpies)  that included A LOT of liquid paper, so they used that to add snow!

I must confess that after the first day of disastrous penguin making, I made stencils.  I don't know what the deal was, but they just couldn't get it.  This is the next day class, which turned out much better.  I didn't take pictures of the rough day.  It was the first day after vacation, so I will give them that.   

The kindergarteners (that I only have for 20 minutes at a time) listened to the story of Tacky the Penguin.  They loved it.  We are still working on our coloring skills, so they did a sheet with Tacky on it.

First and Second grade drew Adelie Penguins.  (Some wanted Macaroni penguins because of those cool yellow feathers!) They were so proud of themselves!  Here are a few examples...

I love the glasses- she is so cute!  This little girl always adds glasses to her subjects in pictures-because she wears them! I think that is awesome. :)  The last one reminds me of Beyonce dancing for some reason... I love how the kid's personalities show in their art.  

This activity took about 2 weeks to complete.  There are a few kids that still aren't finished...so that will be fun with the makeup days we will probably have due to the weather!