We read a story that helped us learn more about Emperor penguins. Did you know that the dad takes care of the egg while the mom goes off to sea? We also learned a new big word - regurgitate! That's what the penguins do to help feed the baby penguin chicks!
We practiced being daddy penguins too! Miss McCabe gave everyone an egg to hold on their feet. It seemed easy at first until we tried waddling like a penguin. Then it got very tricky! We were trying to be careful not to let our egg fall off our feet because if it touched the ice, it would get too cold and wouldn't hatch.
Each child visited one center today and they will rotate through one each day. At Miss McCabe's center, we read a penguin counting story. Then we fished for numbers to feed to a penguin.
Mrs. DeKeyser's center read a penguin alphabet book that helped them learn some new vocabulary words, such as nuzzle and preen. Then the children played a game where they had to match uppercase letter fish with lowercase letter fish to feed to the penguin.
The third center got to watch some webcams of real penguins! Then they drew their observations and helped label some of the parts of a penguin. We saw some neat things, such as preening, nuzzling, flapping wings, penguins being fed fish, penguins swimming and diving in the water, and penguins climbing on rocks! You can check it out at home to! Some of the webcams we saw were:
Sea World Webcam - This one had a variety of penguins. The children enjoyed picking out the Emperor and macaroni penguins.
California Academy of Sciences Webcam - This one allowed you to click on an underwater view and an above water view!
Monterey Aquarium Webcam - This one allowed us to see live feedings and listen to an informational presentation on penguins!
Then we played. Several children chose to build nests for the penguin eggs in the block area since we learned that penguins that live in warm environments do not need to hold the eggs on their feet and do build nests or burrows for their eggs. Some children also chose to exercise their fine motor skills by making a "pokey pin penguin." This was a relaxing activity that was enjoyed by many!
After snack, we enjoyed looking at books - especially penguin books!
Then we spent some time learning all about the letter Aa. We made the /a/ (short a) sound while tracing apple a and learned many words that start with a, such as apple, ant, apricot, alligator, animals, and ambulance.
Two other letter Aa words are Arctic and Antarctica. We talked about how polar bears live in the Arctic while Emperor penguins live in Antarctica. Penguins and polar bears never meet - they don't live by each other. We read/sang two different versions of a book about Arctic animals to the tune of "Over in the Meadow." These books were special because they taught us about new animals, we learned what the babies were called (kits, pups, calves, cubs, etc.), and it helped us to practice counting and number recognition. We enjoyed searching for the hidden numbers on each page in the book!
Then it was time to play outside in the snow! What fun!
Tomorrow we are hoping to go into the gym to do some fun penguin-related scooter activities! It is sure to be exciting!
Have a great evening! :)
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