Brrr! Does January always seem like the longest month of the school year for anyone else? Winter Weather means all things PENGUIN in my first grade classroom! There’s something about Penguins that kids just LOVE! Our Penguin Unit is the perfect way to infuse some fun in our school day during the long winter months. Today I wanted to share some of our favorite Penguin stations and activities. These centers are low-prep and cover all subject areas- reading, writing, math, science, and stem!
Penguin Nonfiction Reading and Writing Activities
My first graders always love learning about these special birds through non-fiction books and videos. We spend a week researching Penguins to learn new facts and grow our schema. I love to incorporate our non-fiction reading standards such as examining text features. We also complete some non-fiction writing activities such as a Can/Have/Are graphic organizer and a Penguin Fact page. You can grab these for FREE by clicking the link below!
Penguin Station Day
After spending time learning, reading, and writing about Penguins, we celebrate Penguin Station Day! In the morning I tell my students that we received a note from a Penguin friend. I put this slide on my smart board and ask the students if we can work together today to complete all of the station challenges and help Penelope Penguin!
Tracking our Penguin Stations and Activities
We spend most of our day completing all of the Penguin Station Activities. I put students in teams of 2 or 3 and give each student a Penguin Station card so that they can track which activities they have visited. As they complete a station activity, they can add a sticker to their chart! The kids absolutely LOVE these charts. They get so excited to add the stickers and I love that they can take them home and share with their families about all the activities we did. I let the students complete the activities in any order they choose. The sticker chart helps them to keep track of which activities they still need to complete.
Penguin Station Activity #1: Fishing for Nouns and Verbs
In this station students sort fish cards into Noun or Verb categories. After sorting, they can write the words on their recording sheet. I like to use blue puff balls in a container to engage students. You can find them here!
Penguin Station Activity #2 My Pet Penguin
For this writing activity, students imagine that they have a pet penguin. They get to name their penguin, write about their pet’s likes and dislikes, and describe the fun things they would do with their pet penguin.
Penguin Station Activity #3 Penguin Parade
My students love this Penguin Parade Addition and Subtraction game! And I love that it is no-prep for me! Just print and go! Students roll a die and move their game piece (I love using winter erasers from the Target Dollar Spot!) They need to solve the problem on the space where they land. I tell my students to always have their partner check their work! The first player to make it all the way to the end is the winner!
Penguin Station Activity #4 Penguin Life Cycle
Students will cut out pictures of the penguin life cycle and glue them in order. They can use the word bank to label each stage of the life cycle. We always read about the Penguin Life Cycle earlier in the week and go over it together using my penguin life cycle poster (included in the resource) so that students are familiar!
Penguin Station Activity #5 Penguin Word Search
My students LOVE word searches. They work together with their team to find all of the penguin words. In my classroom I have timers at this station that they can set for 15 minutes. They try to find as many as they can in that time. When time is up they can choose to keep looking OR move on to the next station. I leave the word search key so they can get some help finding the rest of the words if time is up- this is totally optional though!
Penguin Station Activity #6 Penguin Diagram
At this station, students cut and glue labels on a Penguin Diagram.
Penguin Station Activity #7 Build A Penguin House
This is one of my students’ favorite activities! This is a low prep stem activity in which students use toothpicks and marshmallows to build an ice house for Penelope Penguin. I included two recording sheet options for this station. You could also choose to just let students build.
Penguin Station Activity #8 Penguin Part Part Whole
At this station, students practice finding a missing part or whole in a number bond. They can use their Penguin Part Part Whole mats and manipulatives to help them find the missing number. I like using goldfish crackers as manipulatives. After finding the missing number, they can write it on their recording sheet.
Penguin Treats
After completing our stations, students earn a special treat! I attach these Penguin Treat tags to ziplock bags of Goldfish!
Penguin Crafts
After our stations, at the end of the day, students complete a Penguin Craft (because who doesn’t love crafts!) I included 3 different options, so you can choose the craft that works best for your classroom.
Can you tell how much we love learning about Penguins? You can find all of these Penguin Stations and Activities here!
If you loved Penguin Station Day and are looking to integrate more station days in your classroom, you can read about how we celebrate the 100th Day of School here and Turkey Day here!!
One Response
Yay for penguins! I love your ideas. I’m also a first grade teacher and we do a penguin unit as well in January. It’s nothing compared to what you do though. I’m going to remember all of this for next year and share it with my grade level team. Thank you so much for this amazing resource!