Are you looking to add penguins to your Pre-K students’ studies? Could you use some lesson plan ideas to help you get started? If so, you may want to scroll down the following list of suggestions:
Start the penguin lesson plan by showing the children a map of the word. Use penguin push pins to mark all of the locations onto the map where penguins are known to live (i.e. Peru, New Zealand, Antarctica and Africa). Then briefly talk about the climate and terrain in those areas.
Continue by playing audio clips of various penguins’ vocalizations. Ask the children if they can guess which animals are making those sounds. Explain that the penguins use those sounds to communicate with one another. Then point out some of the different types of calls (i.e. high-pitched, deep-pitched, long and short).
Proceed by letting the children know that there are more than 10 different species of penguins in the world. Next, create a graph onto your classroom’s white board that sorts some of those species by habitat and size. For example, you could place a Galapagos penguin at one end of the chart and the Emperor penguin at the other. The first penguin lives in an exceptionally hot environment whereas the other lives in an extremely cold one. You could also put the little blue penguin (smallest) opposite of the Emperor penguin (largest).
Afterward, ask the children to pick their favorite penguin and chart their answers. Then spend the remainder of the unit’s science segment talking about the children’s top three picks. Be sure to talk about each penguin’s standout, physical features and how those features help them to exist in their given habitats. You’ll also undoubtedly want to mention each penguin’s life cycle, behaviors and diet.
Depending on which penguins the children selected, you may want to let them watch the animals online too. Various zoos and organizations have live penguin cams that you could utilize for such purposes. Among them are the Discovery Channel and the California Academy of Sciences.
When you are done lecturing, give the children an age appropriate diagram of the penguin as well as a coloring sheet. The Education website has one of each as well as penguin math sheets. Math sheet titles to look for include “Perilous Penguins: The Number 6” and “Number 10 Coloring Page.” You may also want to use the penguin anatomy and life cycle diagrams available through the Kid Zone WS website. Whichever ones you choose, let the children fill in and color the sheets before moving on to another lesson segment.
Songs and Arts
Lastly, why not teach the children a handful of penguin songs, rhymes and finger play exercises? Ones that you may want to try are “The Penguin Song”, the “Penguin Dance Chant”, “Penguins Jump!”, “I’m a King Penguin” and the “Penguin Shuffle.” Once they are done learning the songs, help them make penguin puppets. That way, they can sing and play with the puppets as part of a dramatic play session. Instructions on how to make the puppets are posted on the National Wildlife Federation’s website.
Source: Personal Experience
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