Penguin Week Party

I don't believe I didn't take pictures! *bang head repetitively against wall*


Anyways, here's what I could salvage as proof of my Penguin Week/Save the Animals Success (<---I think that shows just how disorganized I am, that I can't even pick one name for the event! Note to self: fix that).


First we read a special penguin story together.  Next year I would love to do a song or poem, too.


Penguin Cookies (I didn't take pictures, but the idea is from here):
Oreo Cookies
Raisins (for eyes)
Cut-up Peach Rings (cut in half for feet across the bottom/small triangles for a beak)

This was a little hard and, honestly, a lot of the kids ate their oreos before the other parts came around.  Still, parents were great about helping and this is were having the older K and Grade Schoolers at the party came in really useful assisting the little ones! And since Oreos come in a pack of 45 - there was enough for everyone at the party!




Pin the Beak on the Penguin:
This was the brainchild of one of my 4 year olds who walked in that morning and said, "I'm so excited, I hope we get to play 'pin the feet on the penguin'!"  Beaks are easier than feet, so I whipped this up at naptime!

Penguin Books:
The kids illustrated their own books about penguins (see little black books) and I wrote down the facts on the pages for them (i.e. My penguin likes to eat squid.  My daddy penguin holds the egg on his feet.  My penguin made a snow camera to take pictures of all the eggs :)).  How much fun to let parents read the books with their child!

Block Center:
I added half a dozen penguin blocks to block center and let imagination go wild! My kids are crazy about blocks - boys and girls - and it's always educational and entertaining for parents to see their children in action at their favorite center.

Make Your Own Penguin:
I always get a kick out of artwork where my kids go through the process of ordering and applying pieces to create a whole. This was a great cooperative project since the kids had to share the pieces and the glue with each other.

Creative Play:
This is where I really wish I had taken pictures! I cut out penguin headpieces (construction paper with a loop strip of paper taped around the back), "explorer" headpieces (that looked like eskimos) and a few fish headpieces for the kids to wear.  The kids loved waddling around and parents loved taking photos! This is one of the few pieces that survived the night (sadly, we were out of stock on contact paper to reinforce my works of art against four year old hands) and I could stage a photo with.  At the party, the dramatic play area was covered with an old blue tablecloth and the play stove and table were covered with silver tablecloths to create "icebergs".  The kids really wanted to climb on the icebergs, but were happy swimming away from sea leopards in the water instead!

Now that I've pulled off my first party, I'll hopefully be better organized and more coherent for the next! Or at least enough so that I manage to take a few pictures!

Penguin Week Activities - Outside

Today was Penguin Day! So we celebrated inside and out (because how often is it sunny in the northwest in January!?).  

Penguin Obstacle Race:

Penguins "toboggan" (slide on their bellies on scooters) using their flippers (hands) to catch fish.

 Some of my penguins put these dirty dirty "fish" (cones) in their "beaks", but most just used their hands to bring them home to the chicks.

My little Penguins then "Penguin Hopped" across the South Pole, and then waddled back to their chicks, who were anxiously awaiting their turn on the fence.

We also did some "Penguin Slides" and "Belly Crawls" in gymnastics earlier on in the week, but this is super easy to recreate and even do indoors (hmmm....maybe).

Penguin Week Activities

Penguin Week (and then some) has finally come to an end! Culminating in our first ever "Save the Emperor Penguin Day" today!  The kids worked hard...and here's some proof:


Learning the Letter "P":
We use Handwriting Without Tears and work with "big lines", "little lines", "big curves", and "small curves" to write letters.  We cut out big lines and small curves, and then glued together to practice our letter "P."

"P" is for penguin! (hmmmm....that one must be looking up :))

We LOVE to paint our feet! It's new to me, so I am still working out all the kinks on how to make it look cute. The paint always becomes blurred and it's never as cute as it is online, but it's still ridiculously cute! And it tickles their feet and makes them giggle. If you haven't painted feet yet - do it! I line up 3-5 chairs and they eagerly take their shoes off and wait (and usually more sit around on the floor and wait for their turn). After they dried, I cut them out, colored on an orange beak, and placed them on a cut-out iceberg for room decorations. Super cute!

Are You As Tall as An Emperor Penguin?! We measured our heights (see iceberg on left) and saw just how tall an Emperor Penguin can be (4 ft! 6 inches for a baby!). They got a great kick out of seeing how they measured up (and comparing hand sizes to the Baby Penguin) and comparing their heights with each other once they were all measured on the iceberg.

There were LOTS more activities (seriously, I had to fill a whole week!) but these are some of my favorites (and one's I snapped photos of). More to come!

Save the Animals Fundraiser - Plan 3

Since the idea started as a Fundraiser/Bake Sale, I figured I'd better stick something to the original plan.  The kids absolute decision to sponsor a Baby Emperor Penguin decided me to throw a completely Antarctic Party for the Fundraiser (previously, I'd thought I'd cover all the animal areas we'd learned about this month: Antarctic, Ocean, Australian).  So we switched it up and simplified our "Bake Sale" to this:

Penguin Cookies:  I measured out all the ingredients at my house (I'm still getting used to the whole Pre-K and wasn't ready to bring in my own goods for them to practice real measuring skills) and let them practice using measuring cups to measure out the pre-measured goods (if that makes sense).  We used the Yogurt Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe so I didn't have to worry about it if they licked those little fingers! I just got a new portable Cookie Maker for Hanukkah and brought it into class.  Unfortunately, it needed to go through a few runs before it stopped smelling like burning plastic, so I ended up taking home most of the cookies to bake there.

Antarctic Hot Chocolate: We were going to make fancy Hot Cocoa mix...but I'm pretty poor and it was such a deal just to buy the huge bin of pre-made mix.  So we went with that.  But they got to practice real measuring - 2 TBS scoops, 6 marshmallows, and 1 big penguin chocolate chip (I made at home with a mold).  Seriously, this kept a huge group of them entertained for at least a half hour.

At the Fundraiser/Penguin Party, everyone got to take home 1 cookie and 1 bag of Hot Cocoa (donations accepted).


Some parents completely forgot to bring money.  Some parents were upset because they brought a lot of money and expected more.  However, it was really hard for the kids not to eat the cookies they made or take home the cocoa and they did a great job of waiting until the party and then only taking after they'd asked their parents. If I did it again, I'd still only do 2...maybe 3..."bake sale" activities (mainly just because I love doing food with kids!).