| Author | |
Mary G
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5790
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 12:22pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
For the past couple of weeks, my little ones and I have been doing a unit on penguins for our science. We're having so much fun (we had read "Mr. Popper's Penguins" at the beginning of the school year, which is what sort of got us on this particular trail....).
We found two great books if you're doing a penguin study:
Antarctic Antics by Judy Sierra has some really cute penguin poems -- Thomas and Maggie each selected one as their weekly poem to memorize (not great poetry, but some are really cute  ).
My Season with Penguins -- by Sophie Webb. This is a great example of a nature journal. This woman went on an expedition to the Antarctic and the descriptions are wonderful and the pictures are humorous, detialed and great fun.
Penguins are a wonderful nature study and geography project all in one. Penguins are so cute, my almost 3yos wants a knitted one -- I'm going to design an emperor penguin and include the brood flap and insert a baby penguin into it.....now if I could knit instead of homeschool...... 
__________________
MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
amyable
Forum All-Star
Joined: March 07 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3798
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 1:02pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks for sharing! We are just about to start an Arctic unit, maybe I can swing my girls towards the other end of the world too.  They love penguins.
__________________
Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MacBeth
Forum All-Star
Probably at the beach...
Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: New York
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2518
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 2:56pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Mary G. wrote:
We found two great books if you're doing a penguin study:
My Season with Penguins -- by Sophie Webb. This is a great example of a nature journal. This woman went on an expedition to the Antarctic and the descriptions are wonderful and the pictures are humorous, detailed and great fun.
|
|
|
I just want to add a cheer for this book! It is, as Mary said, a great example of a nature notebook. It does include a sad scene of a chick being eaten, though, so if anyone is sensitive to that...Thursday at the zoo our group of kids, including some young ones under 5, witnessed a lynx catch and torture a small migrant bird (probably a warbler, but I could not bear to watch). Yeah, it's nature, but it's not always nice nature!
__________________
God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog 
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MaryM
Board Moderator
Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104
|
| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 8:50pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks, Mary. This is a real timely topic for us. My daughter is involved in a co-op writing workshop and the instructor has just told us she wants to have them do a research report on penguins then take them to see March of the Penguins, so we were just starting to look for resources for penguin reports. I found this page of penguin links - it has a bunch of links to all things penguin (crafts, experiments, activity pages, how to draw a penguin, photos, sound clips, etc.) I thought the Oreo penguin cookies were very cute. But I'm a pushover for tie-in snacks.
And a fun picture book my kids have always enjoyed is Tacky the Penguin.
Your knit penguin will be awesome - you'll have to post pictures.
__________________
Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MaryM
Board Moderator
Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104
|
| Posted: Oct 29 2005 at 2:25am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Just got it - it is great, thanks for the recommendation. I also wanted to say that we found a great picture book on the Emporer penguin called The Emperor's Egg. It's really cute and very informative.
Also, since I was entertaining the small group of 5-6 year old boys during the above mentioned writing class we needed to come up with some fun "penguin" activities to do before going to the movie. Using large plastic Easter eggs, I had them try to balance them on their feet and walk - like the Father Emperor penguin does. It was quite comical to watch them. They had to figure out ways to make them stay more securely (since they didn't have a brood flap ) and came up with putting them inside their sockband and inside the ankle elastic of sweat pants. We also practiced holding our breath to see how long we could do it (and compared it to how long an Emporer penguin can 15-20 minutes). They pushed themselves along the linoleum on their bellies (wish we would have had a slide there). All in all it was lots of fun and they seemed to really enjoy it and it got them in the mood for the movie.
__________________
Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mary G
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5790
|
| Posted: Oct 29 2005 at 11:08am | IP Logged
|
|
|
BTW, we read one yesterday that was AWFUL! A Tale of Antarctica -- the author pounds you over the head with how bad people are moving into the Antarctica and oil pollution is threatening "Papa Penguin" -- in one picture, he's covered head to toe with oil. Also, many of the pictures show litter, the plasstic soda rings caught around two penguins' necks, etc. It's so PC even my littles were turned off. Not that I'm against showing kids how to be good stewards, but this just was so heavy-handed esp for a book geared at K-2nd!
__________________
MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mary G
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5790
|
| Posted: Oct 29 2005 at 11:10am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Another book you might add if you're doing a penguin unit (I borrowed it from the library but I may breakdown and buy it ) is called Easy Origami Animals -- it's got a whole family of penguins to make with polar bears and paper "blocks of ice". Very cool!
__________________
MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MacBeth
Forum All-Star
Probably at the beach...
Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: New York
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2518
|
| Posted: Oct 29 2005 at 12:35pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Mary G. wrote:
| BTW, we read one yesterday that was AWFUL! A Tale of Antarctica -- the author pounds you over the head with how bad people are moving into the Antarctica and oil pollution is threatening "Papa Penguin" -- in one picture, he's covered head to toe with oil. Also, many of the pictures show litter, the plasstic soda rings caught around two penguins' necks, etc. It's so PC even my littles were turned off. Not that I'm against showing kids how to be good stewards, but this just was so heavy-handed esp for a book geared at K-2nd! |
|
|
Another recent book that I thought might be nice, but was a bit...hmmm...how should I put it?...politically motivated, perhaps? Tango Makes Three
It is the true story of two male penguins who nest together, and hatch an orphaned egg. Yeah...gay penguins. Now, many birds in captivity will displaying same sex attraction when other potential mates are not around. Personally, I always thought it was because birds are not too bright  . Of course, this book got a rave review from the NY Times, ALA, and others.
__________________
God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MacBeth
Forum All-Star
Probably at the beach...
Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: New York
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2518
|
| Posted: Oct 29 2005 at 6:26pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Update...it seems that someone introduced one of the "gay" penguins to the right girl penguin. The couple in the book is no longer together. I wonder if the author plans a sequel? 
OTOH, that some folks (websites and blogs galore) are taking this all seriously is too much to handle. Um... !!
__________________
God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mary Chris
Forum All-Star
Joined: Jan 27 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2175
|
| Posted: Oct 30 2005 at 7:56am | IP Logged
|
|
|
SeaWorld Teacher Guides is a page you might want to check out. I don't remember anything about "gay" penguins .
A Christmas book we discovered last year is My Penguin Osbert.
__________________
Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Penguins
