First Week Of Penguin Study

We started a new Bible Curriculum this week and I really like it. It is simple, with no prep needed, no unnecessary frills or distractions from the Bible lesson. James has already memorized the first 5 books of the Bible! I am really proud of him.

We also started our Penguin Study. God worked out my previous uncertainty about what to do about a science curriculum. Studying penguins is science! James' favorite penguin is the rockhopper...because it hops! He would pick the most active penguin there is-No surprise there! Here's a glance at what we did this week, which were all from the Sea World Curriculum: (I did this with my Coop class on Wednesday, too!)

• "Penguin PE" : We imitated penguin moves. We pretended we were swimming, moving our flippers up and down, steering with our tails (wiggle!). When we were ready to jump out of the water, we swam very fast and jumped out onto the ice! Next we waddled slowly like a regal emperor, then transitioned into a Chinstrap with our flippers straight out for balance and walking faster (ran in place), then we became rockhoppers and hopped all over the place. And of course we have to go for another swim, we see a fish or krill and swim after it, but oh no...there is a seal! Wave our flippers fast and jump out of the water...whew! Safe back on the ice. We're tired, so we slide on our bellies back to our home...sit on our nest, and then we become a person again!

• We had some penguin cards with info about each species, and found out which was the smallest, heaviest, tallest, most endangered...and reviewed where they each live. I will be making duplicate of each card, to make a memory matching game to play next week.

• "Body of Geography": First, we got out our beach ball globe and located the areas where penguins live. (BTW, did you know all penguins live south of the equator...no north pole penguins buddy buddy with polar bears!) We located the Arctic-the North Pole, where Santa lives of course!, and then discussed how ANTarctic means the opposite of arctic...so the south pole. We found Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, Africa, South America...all these places are homes for penguins....17 species in all. Then James pretended he was the globe..."Body" of Geography...and he tapped where various species lived. For example, the emperor penguin lived on his foot. Galapagos lived on his belly button.
  

• "Black and White Buddy-Countershading": We made a cute penguin out of construction paper cut outs, and cotton balls. After it dried, we spead out black construction paper on the ground and held our penguin buddy over the ground face down as if it were swimming. We discussed how the penguin was disguised blending in with the "dark ocean floor" (black paper). Then we raised our penguins above our heads, and noticed that the white belly disguised the penguin into our white ceiling or the "very bright surface of the water". We discussed how God made the penguin with countershading so that it would be difficult for a predator to see the penguin swimming.

• Spelling Games- A worksheet with penguin related spelling words...James did very well, but this was his least favorite part to say the least. I had the spelling words written out on a chart, on one side of his worksheet he was to circle the correct spelling of the word, and cross out the misspelled word. On the other side, he was to just write out the word. Arctic, Antarctica, Penguin, Ocean, Seals, Krill, Whale, Ice, Polar, Snow, South Pole, Sea, Weather, Mountains, Birds, Cold, Whales.

• And all week long we have enjoyed our books and videos from the library. His favorite book...Tacky and the Emperor. It is really cute, go check it out if you haven't read it yet.