Polar Bears and Penguins
Click here to listen to the song and view the lyrics of the Polar Bear song.
Click here to view the lyrics of the Penguin song.
Click Here to learn how to draw a penguin.
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Penguin!
Play Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Penguin using the format of Duck, Duck, Goose. When the last person is tapped with the word penguin, the 2 involved students must waddle around the circle like a penguin as fast as they can, and try to reach the empty spot first.
Play a game of Polar Bears and Penguins:I divide the class into two teams . One team is the polar bears, the other is the penguins. This is actually a game very similar to Wheel of Fortune. I think of a word that has to do with the polar theme. I put dashes on the marker board to show how many letters are there on the board. For instance, if the word is Arctic, I put 6 dashes on the board. The kids take turn guessing letters. The first team to guess the word correctly gets a point.
Polar Bears and Penguins, Version 2
Play this game to review any kind of drill you want. I divided the class into 2 teams, and we reviewed our spelling words (All of them, from the beginning of the year). Each team took turns spelling a word. Each time a student spelled a word correctly, they received a craft stick to serve as a point. At the end of the game, I collected the craft sticks from each team. We counted them in tally fashion, laying them on the carpet with the 5th point across the previous 4. This helped to practice tally counting as students determined the points earned by their team. Highest score, of course, was the winning team.
Create a Penguin Parade:
Download the "How to Draw a Penguin" page and make copies for each student. Let the students research the different kinds of penguins by using library books and/or information on the web. A great site to learn about the 17 different types of penguins is: Mrs. Bee's Penguin Page. After the children have researched their penguin, have them create a life-size drawing of their penguin using the basic page from the "How to Draw A Penguin Page." Next the children used the yarn length as a guide in determining how to draw their penguin. Then, they drew the basic bowling pin shape (Sometimes I helped them with this part). Last, they added details such as : Color of the fur, color of the eyes or feet, tufts around the ear for the Rockhopper Penguin, etc... When everyone is finished, we arranged them in a hallway as a penguin parade. Students also wrote a sentence about their penguin and attached it to their penguin art. In more recent years, students have written several sentences within a writing frame. Their sentences include: 1. Name of their penguin, 2. Height 3. Where their penguin lives 4. Unique physical features. It was a fun project and made a great display. It also helped the kids internalize measurement concepts.
Helpful Books relating to this Unit.
Great links for an arctic unit: