P is for Penguins (Ella's Activities)

This week the girls are learning about the letter Pp.  We chose penguins as our main theme for the learning.  Ella also worked on the colors black and white, like the colors of a penguin.  My littlest penguin dressed in her black and white clothes and excitedly started school.

Arin was my big helper with the prep work of Ella's learning activities today.  One of Arin's favorite activities is to use the 1" circle punch.  She punched out several black circles and several white circles. 

Ella placed these circles on clear contact paper (always a hit with the girls) and then I cut out the letter P for her.  We also reviewed the sound that the letter P makes.

Ella worked with her penguin matching cards.  She still likes to pretend that she doesn't know where the cards go, but as soon as I agree that she has it right, she quickly says, "noooo!!" (in a sweet, but teasing voice) and changes it to the right place.

I printed some cute, little penguins which we used in several activities.  First, I placed five penguins in front of Ella.  Then, I asked her to find a specific one, such as "Find the penguin that is to the left of the pink one" or "Find the penguin that is under the pink penguin".



Next, I told Ella to place one of the penguins in front of her.  She picked the pink, which is no surprise since that is her favorite color.  I gave her simple commands, such as, "Place the green penguin next to the pink one" and "Place the yellow penguin on top of the green one".

We lined all ten of the penguins up and Ella practiced her counting skills.

Ella loves to play with magnets on the refrigerator, so I covered the penguins in clear contact paper and attached a magnet to the back of each.  Ella practiced matching the penguin colors together.

Finally, we used the penguins in the way they were intended.  I sang a penguin song, while Ella placed the penguins on the refrigerator.  Arin loved the song and caught on to it quickly.  Later, her and Ella were in the kitchen playing with the magnets and Arin was singing the song for Ella.

Ten Little Penguins

(tune: Ten Little Indians)

One little...two little...three little penguins...

four little...five little...six little penguins...

seven little...eight little...nine little penguins...

ten little penguins dancing on the ice.

Count them...count them...count them with me...

count them...count them...count them with me...

count them...count them...count them with me...

ten little penguins dancing on the ice.

Ten little...nine little...eight little penguins...

seven little...six little...five little penguins...

four little...three little...two little penguins...

one little penguin dancing on the ice.

I quickly learned from our Snow Day, that pom poms are fun manipulatives.  For our penguin activities, we used black and white pom poms.  In front of Ella, I laid out several of the circles that Arin had punched for us, creating a simple pattern.  Then, she took the pom poms and recreated the pattern underneath the circles.

Arin did not want to miss out on the pom pom fun, so she participated with the next activity. I placed piles of the pom poms, along with two bowls in front of each of the girls.  They each had a pair of tweezers which they used to transfer the pom poms from the pile on the floor, into the bowls (all black in one bowl and all white in another).

Some of the books that I read to Ella included:
Penguins ABC by Kevin Schafer
Penguin Dreams by J. Otto Seibold and V. L. Walsh
Penguins by Liz Pichon
Bold and Bright Black-and-White Animals by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
About Penguins: A Guide for Children by Cathryn Sill
Penguins and Their Chicks by Margaret Hall

*Check back later this week to see Arin's Penguin Activities*

Linked to: Tot School