Penguin Lesson Plan

My favorite animal:  PENGUINS

        (Have kids think about what their favorite animal might be.  Have them write it down on a slip of paper and drop into a bowl.  Tell them I'll draw a slip from the bowl and next month I'll spend a day talking about the favorite animal that I drew.)

Teaching a week about PENGUINS in the library.

1 -  I'll read a penguin poem.

2 - I'll share my penguin postcard and stuffed animal collections.  I'll show them a bucket of fiction and nonfiction books, and we'll talk about the differences.

3 -  I'll read aloud a nonfiction book about penguins.  Kids will retell facts/interesting stuff they remember from the reading.

4 - Read aloud a fiction book.  

               (When talking about fiction, make sure to discuss ANTHROPOMORPHISM, especially with older grades.)

Here's a great FREE blog that includes lesson ideas, games, and lots of videos:  http://embracinghome.com/penguin-lesson-plans-facts/

childfun.com/themes/animals/penguins

marcias-lesson-links.com/penguincapers.html

YouTubes:

Kids Academy:  Penguins for Kids (4:22)

SciShoKids!:  Meet 3 Peculiar Penguins

All Things Animal:  Animals for Kids:  Penguins (6:39)

Word search puzzle:  Antarctic, bird, southern, hemisphere, swim, waddle, don't fly, eat fish, South Pole, Emperor, Rockhopper, Gentoo, King, Macaroni, African,, Little

What do you call a group of penguins?

    a RAFT of penguins when they're in the water

    a WADDLE of penguins if they're on land

SPS books:

E ABR Pelonius Penguin

E BRE  A Wish for Wings That Work

E JEF Lost and Found

E JEF Up and Down

E LES Tacky the Penguin

E LES Three Cheers for Tacky

E MIN If You Were a Penguin (Pre-K, super simple) facts at end, 2009 PA One Book, Every Young Child

E ODO Pinkie Leaves Home

E PAC (Baskets) The Christmas Penguin

E WOO The Little Penguin

FE MSB #8 PB Penguin Puzzle (Magic Schoolbus)

FE OSB MTH #40 Eve of the Emperor

F ATW Mr. Popper's Penguins

F STR PB Is That an Angry Penguin in Your Gym Bag?

E 080 FDP #3 Penguins

E 590.1 AHS #8 PB Penguin in the Snow

E 598 ALS PB Penguins

E 598 POT HHS Penguin Moves Out of the Antarctic

E 598 WWW Why Why Why Can't Penguins Fly

E 793.KAF Surf's Up

E 598.1 NGS #25 Penguins & Polar Bears

E 598.47 Penguins - 100 Things

598.37 JAC March of the Penguins

598.4 ALL Penguin in the Snow (a 2nd copy?)

599.2 HAN Penguins

Other books that sound good:

I Can Read: Little Penguin's New Friend - 2019, Laura Driscoll

Perfectly Polite Penguins - 2019, Georgiana Deutsch

Penguin's Big Adventure - 2015 Yoon series

Penguins Don't Wear Sweaters! - 2018, Tamura

Spike, The Penguin with Rainbow Hair - 2021, Cullen & Ellis (paper) 

365 Penguins - Fromental & Jolivet ( apparently funny & lots of math) ordered

A Penguin Story - Portis

Penguin in Peril  - Helen Hancocks

The Emperor's Egg - Martin Jenkins

Flight School 0 Lita Judge

Penguins - Gail Gibbons  ordered

Penguin Problems - Jory John & Lane Smith - apparently has incorrect information (GoodReads reviews) that can be tackled in class!

Hanukkah Picture Book Quickies

It's Hanukkah!
Jeanne Modesitt
Ill. Robin Spowart
1999
GR: 3.50- 12 ratings
My rating:  2
Mouse family, some is irrelevant just to rhyme:"We all dance the horah, even Great-Grandma Laura."  Don't really like the story or the illustrations, but the addendums about the holiday, menorah, and dreidels are useful.

It's Hanukkah Time!
Latita Berry Kropf
Photographs by Tod Cohen
2004
GR:  3.22 - 9 ratings
My rating:  4 - Perfect for Toddlers
I plan to use this for a toddler storytime (18 - 35 months)  It's simple, and photographs accentuate each idea that's presented.  (Note: Instead of latkes, they fry sufganiyot, and include a recipe in the back).

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah
Susan L. Roth
2004
GR: 3.63 - 43 ratings
Mice again.  Super simple: the words to a song.  Cut paper collage. Not a great read-aloud, IMO, but might accompany a recording of the song.
"Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah, come light the menorah.
Let's have a party, we'll all dance the hora.
And while we are playing,
The candles are all burning low.
One for each night, they shed a sweet light.
To remind us of day long ago.
    (Repeat twice)

Hanukkah Lights, Hanukkah Nights
Leslie Kimmelman
Ill. John Himmelman
1992
GR:  3.52 - 21 ratings
My rating:  3
Very simple story of how a family celebrates Hanukkah.  A bit misleading in that it might be interpreted that specific things are done on specific nights.  If it's made clear that there's no particular order of when to celebrate in each way, it works just fine.

One Night, One Hanukkah Night
Aidel Backman
1990
GR:  2.00 - 1 rating
My rating:  3
Great premise, one page contemporary, the next historical - but didn't quite pull it off.  As a read-aloud with explanation it would probably be fine.  Each page has a different traditions, a menorah with the correct amount of candles, and simple explanations if needed.

Hooray for Hanukkah!
Fran Manushkin
Ill. Carolyn Croll
2001
GR:  2.94 - 18 ratings
my rating:  2/5
Another simple way to show the eight nights of Hanukkah and share the different holiday traditions.  It's from the P-o-v of the menorah.  Old-fashioned clothing, though it's set in contemporary times - this bothered me.  And the repetition of "I am bright, but I could be brighter" became very tiring very quickly.

It's a Miracle! A Hanukkah Storybook
Stephanie Spinner
ill. Jill McElmurry
2003
3.92 - 36 ratings
A grandmother tells a different story on every one of the eight nights of Hanukkah.  All end up being a true story about family members she not only knows, but who will attend the family meal. Within the stories she tells are Hanukkah traditions.  Although the story is longish, it's delightful.  The book ends with "The Hanukkah Legend," a glossary, and the three Hanukkah blessings.

PICTURE BOOK - The Artist and Me by Shane Peacock

Illustrated by Sophie Casson

2016 Owlkids Books

HC $16.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.92

My rating:  4.5

Endpapers:  white with pale blue/gray dabs of paint - a few generic photos in the front, none in the back

1^st line/s:  "In the beautiful countryside in southern France near the town of Arles long ago, I used to do an ugly thing."

My comments:  4.5  This book says SO much.  The story, from the point-of-view of a bully who was horrendous to VanGogh when he lived in Arles, is excellent and thought-provoking.  I love the way that Sophie Casson used Van Gogh's paintings and put her own "brand" to them for most of the illustrations in the book.  There is one illustration, however, that is a bit off-putting to me, a doubled page spread of the bullies laughing at him.  They are really ugly and don't fit with the rest of the story somehow.  Perhaps it's to show how ugly bullies really are?
     I've already got lots of lesson plans in mind to use with this book - both for Owning Up/ Annatude/ bullying and for the glory of VanGogh's art!  This is a really nice addition to the genre of art books for kids.
     1 - Van Gogh's art
     2 - info about Van Gogh (include info from the afterword)
     3 - read aloud the book
     4 - create a piece of art using the kinds of strokes that Van Gogh and Casson used

Publisher's Weekly review.
Kirkus review.

Goodreads:  Vincent van Gogh is now known as an acclaimed, incomparable Post-Impressionist painter. But when he lived in Arles, France, in the 1880s, he was mocked for being different. Back then, van Gogh was an eccentric man with wild red hair who used clashing hues to paint unusual-looking people and strange starry skies. Children and adults alike called him names and laughed at him. Nobody bought his art. But he kept painting.
          Inspired by these events, The Artist and Me is the fictional confession of one of van Gogh’s bullies — a young boy who adopted the popular attitude of adults around him. It’s not until the boy faces his victim alone that he realizes there is more than one way to see the world.
          Artwork in the book uses vibrant color and texture to bring the laneways, cafés, and wheat fields of southern France to life while playing on scenes from van Gogh’s own work. The lyrical text carries the emotional weight of the subject and will leave readers with the understanding that everyone’s point of view is valuable.

Flotsam - David Wiesner

Clarion Books, 2006
$17.00
40 pages
My rating: 5
Endpapers: beige "sand"
2007 Caldecott Winner

Why have I never before looked at this Caldecott winner??? It's a gorgeous wordless story. Ultra-clever. SO creative, so much to say, a full-fledged story without words.

A boy is lazing at the beach with his family, examining bugs and crabs and the ocean in general, when a large wave brings in a strange old camera - a "Melville Underwater Camera." He develops the film inside and can't believe the pictures that appear. Underwater fantasies of all kinds - whole stories could be told in each underwater photo - so many lesson plan ideas - But that's not all the pictures that are on the camera. There's a photo of another child, standing on a beach, holding a photo. And when he looks closer, he sees that the photo being held is of another child standing on a beach holding another photo....and back and back and back....

Note to self: start hunting for copies!

The illustrations are definitely Caldecott worthy. What a story.