Penguins Penguins Everywhere!

Another Penguin themed day!

Are you getting tired of these cute little birds yet?

I've almost reached my saturation point and am looking forward to posting some Valentine themed crafts soon!

Here is a cute little Penguin Glyph.  You can print it from here.

And here is a little Penguin song I found.

Jillian LOVED it since one of the penguins is named Jill!

On Top of an Iceberg
(Tune: On Top of Old Smokey)
On top of an iceberg,
All covered with snow,
I saw my first penguin,
And I wanted to know.

Oh, is it a bird,
Or, is it a fish?
I looked at his feathers,
And knew which was which.

I said, "Mr. Penguin,
Which species are you?"
He said, "I'm an emperor,
And not a gentoo."

I said, "Mr. Penguin,
What's under you patch?"
He said, "It's an egg,
It's ready to hatch!"

I said, "Mr. Penguin,
Oh, where is your wife?"
"She's out in the ocean,
She'll be back tonight."

Said Mr. Penguin,
"Her name is Jill.
She's out in the ocean,
Feeding on krill."

The next thing I knew,
I heard a small peep.
And I saw a chick,
At the emperor's feet!

Tonight we had a PENGUIN themed dinner!

The kids waddled to the table and really got into the whole PENGUIN idea!

Sarah called her milk 'sea water' and {when she accidently dropped some food on her clothes} said, 'oh no - not on my nice tuxedo!'

We started with an appetizer of 'krill'.

 {cream cheese spread on ritz crackers with shrimp on top}

The main course was fish followed by.......

Penguin Pie for dessert!

We filled out this Penguin Pie worksheet that you can find here.

This worksheet teaches kids about similes......

My penguin pie is as COLD as ICE

My ice cream is as WHITE as SNOW

{I never knew that these popular sayings were called similes - I love learning with my kids!}

If you would like to read more about similes, idioms, and popular sayings check out this fun book by Loreen Leedy and see how many similes you get right!

{Chris got 12/14 correct - smart man I have!}

And that ENDS the week of PENGUIN posts!

Snow Day

It's our first SNOW DAY of the year! 

We were unpleasantly awakened by an automated 5:45am phone call from the school announcing the school closure.  I knew last night that we would probably have a snow day so I was ready with snow related activities and books for the kids.  Usually I only have Nathan on Friday's - the prospect of having all 4 kids at home all day had me scrambling for activities to keep them busy.

Snowman Glyph

Have you ever heard of a glyph?  I had never heard of one before until Sarah started bringing them home as homework.  You use a legend (key) for what different parts of the glyph mean (like what kind of hat the snowman will wear, color of the scarf, how many buttons and what kind of footwear).  

Shaving Cream Snow Painting

The next craft we did was so fun!  I took some sky blue cardstock and drew a tree with brown marker.  Then I mixed good old Elmer's glue and shaving cream together and gave the kids Q tips and spoons to dot and smear the 'white snow' on their picture.  The results were great!  The 'snow' dried to a soft marshmallowy texture and the kids loved applying it to their winter tree.

You could also add food coloring to the 'snow' and decorate a Christmas tree with snow or make snowflakes on a dark blue piece of cardstock.

Then we sat down to read some snow themed books. 

Coffee Filter Snowflakes

The books reminded me of another craft I was thinking of making - snowflakes!  I filled small bowls with water, tinted with food coloring, and had the kids use droppers and Qtips to color coffee filters.  We let the coffee filters sit on paper towels to dry and then cut them into snowflakes to hang on our kitchen door.

And here is the little sweet baby that so patiently sits, watches and observes while we craft.