Penguin Theme
Dive into a playful penguin theme that will have your little one waddling with excitement. Learning is much more fun when it’s hands-on!
Why Should Kids Learn about Penguins?
Learn about Animal Adaptation and Survival
Webbed feet and waterproof feathers are both adaptations that penguins use to swim in cold water and survive.
Animal Diversity
Penguins are birds, yes, but they can’t fly! They swim!
Teaching littles about animal diversity opens their eyes to diversity all around them, including in humans.
Cooperation
To stay warm, penguins need to huddle together. They must cooperate to ensure everyone’s survival. Furthermore, both parents watch over the egg and help keep it warm. This, too, requires cooperation.
Geography
Although penguins may be a glaringly obvious science theme, there is still an aspect of geography to a penguin theme.
Showing preschoolers where they live on a world map and then showing them where different animals live is a wonderful way to introduce them to maps and geography.
(pssst– penguins live in Antarctica, Sub-Antartica Islands, South America, New Zealand and Australia, and Southern Africa).
This article may contain affiliate links to products that may help you when homeschooling preschool.
Books to Use with a Penguin Theme
We’ve developed a preschool penguin theme book list just for you!
Penguin Theme Activities
Penguin Egg Waddle Relay Race
Preschoolers have to waddle to the finish line but keep an egg (ball) between their knees as they move.
Penguin Life Cycle
Learn about the different stages of the penguin life cycle.
Frozen Fish Toss
Use a beanbag as a fish and have your preschooler try to toss the fish into another penguin’s mouth (a bucket). This is a great way to improve hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills.
Penguin Freeze Dance
Turn on the music and let the little ones waddle around to it. Once the music stops, have them freeze.
Life Size Penguins
Find out how tall penguins are. Use a roll of paper to measure their size. Create a life-size penguin on the paper. This puts into perspective how close to preschool size some penguins are.
Let little ones color in the life-size penguin. You can create different penguins throughout your penguin theme to make a whole penguin colony!
Ice Cube Transfer
Provide two bowls—one full of ice and one empty. Have your child use tongs to move the ice from one bowl to the next. Add some plastic penguins to turn the ice into icebergs and make it a sensory bin-type activity.
How to Penguins Stay Dry
Print out a picture of a penguin. Have your preschooler color the belly white with a white crayon. Make sure the whole belly is covered in crayon. Spray (or use a dropper) water on the penguin.
The water will repel off the penguin because of the wax. Water repels off of penguins in real life because of the oil on their feathers. It does the same thing as the wax from the crayons.
Iceberg Hop
Cut out large cloud-like shapes from white paper to represent icebergs. Tape the icebergs on the floor. Let your little one hop from one iceberg to the next one without falling in the water.
Penguin Matching
Print out some clip art penguins (all the same). Add letters, numbers, colors, or shapes to the bellies of the penguins (two penguins for each letter, number, etc.).
Match the penguins with the same thing on their bellies to each other.
Make it harder by flipping the penguins over or using upper/lowercase letter matches.
Ice Cube Painting
Add washable paint to an ice cube tray, filling the tray about 1/3 of the way up. Add a bit of water to the paint and mix (carefully). Add one plastic penguin to each ice cube. Freeze overnight.
The plastic penguin will act as a handle to hold while ice painting. Pop the penguins and attached ice cubes out of the tray and let your little one get to painting on cardstock or posterboard.
Preschool Activities about Penguins
A penguin theme is perfect for your little one because penguins are cute and preschooler-sized! Making it hands-on and fun will make this unit memorable and engaging.
