Penguins Unit - Week 2

Wow, what a week! I hope you all enjoyed your TWO snowy days with no school. 

Even though we only had three days in school this week and had to rearrange our schedule, we still had time for lots of Penguin learning. Here is some of what we did:


How Penguins Stay Warm - Penguin Blubber/Feather Oil Activity

Part 1

• Place a blubber glove (shortening inside two sealable sandwich bags) in a bucket of ice water
• Students put one hand in the glove and one hand in the water to see how blubber helps keep penguins warm

Part 2

• Put petroleum jelly on one or two fingers of the hand that goes into the ice water. The jelly helps the water roll off the fingers.
• Talk about how the blubber and feather oil helps to keep them warmer than the part of the hand that was in the cold water unprotected

All About Penguins Books
Students worked on pages in their All About Penguins books this week. We discussed penguin adaptations as well as what penguins eat and students completed activities/wrote about what they learned on paper of their choice!

TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATION:

This last part has no pictures to go along with it yet, but has been super exciting for the students! At any point during the school day (as long as I am not teaching a lesson) students may go to a special laptop set up in the classroom to record themselves. They may share a fact, ask a question, or essentially share anything that pertains to our topic of study: Penguins. I watch the clips each night to help answer questions that were asked and it shows me all the great information the students are learning. Plus...they LOVE seeing themselves on camera. 

I can't wait to compile to clips at the end of our unit and make it into a video to watch all together! Then of course, I'll post it here :)