​You can only pass it with your clothes peg. Be careful not to drop it!!

To finish up our Penguin unit, we created "Kleenex box" penguins for our school-wide Cardboard Challenge. We started by painting our boxes black.

After deciding what kind of penguin they wanted to make, the children got busy creating!

They did a fantastic job! Here are the final results:

Over the last few weeks the children each created three questions that they wanted to answer about penguins. With their Big Buddy, they spent some time on the Chromebooks researching the answers to their questions. They then copies their findings and drew pictures in their Penguin Books. Then it was video day! Mrs. Sauer, our teacher-librarian worked with us to video our presentations of learning. We used a green screen to help set the 'atmosphere' and we dressed up nice and warm - since we were reporting from the very cold Antarctica!

We wondered how penguins stay warm in the cold. We read that they have a layer of blubber or fat under their feathers. So...we conducted an experiment. We created a "blubber glove" using butter to create a layer of fat. The children dipped their hand in an ice cold bowl of water. Brrr...they all agreed it was too cold!! Then they put the blubber glove on and put their hand back in the water. The blubber glove protected their hand from the cold...just like the blubber does for the animals living in Antarctica and the Arctic.

We thought we'd try waddling like penguins - which wasn't too hard until we added an "egg". We pretended that we were Emperor Penguins who had their egg on their feet. The hard part was trying to move without letting it drop on the ice!

The children used different shapes to create their own penguins.

Our finished products turned out so cute!

We were so lucky to have Connor's Grandad come and visit our classroom. He has spent a lot of time in Antarctica and around penguins. He shared his knowledge and experiences with us. He had many fantastic photos to show us as well as some of his equipment. What an amazing experience for us to be able to learn from an expert!!

We measured our height to see how we compared to three different kinds of penguins - Adelie, King, and Emperor.

The children have become authors lately - writing their own stories in their I Am An Author books.  They draw pictures and then practice sounding out the words phonetically.  It's a very difficult job stretching out all of the sounds, hearing them in words, and then putting them down in print. They have done very well for their early attempts at 'kidwriting'. ​

The first part is to partner talk. During partner talk the students have a chance to discuss what they are going to draw and 'kidwrite' about. For students this collaboration is an important step to plan out their thinking so that they don't get to the table and not have any idea what they are going to write about. If they are stuck, then their partner can help them think up some ideas. ​

After the children have had a chance to plan their thinking by partner talking, they head to the tables with their books. They draw their pictures and then "kidwrite" by stretching out the sounds as best as they can. We have been practicing letters and sounds together with a number of songs, big books, and smaller booklets.

The children are all at different stages and abilities when it comes to trying to write. For those students who have already made the connection between alphabet letter symbols and their sounds, writing what they hear is a little bit easier. They can often get the first letter (especially if it's a consonant) and sometimes some of the other consonants in a word. Vowels are a lot harder! For those students who still don't know most of the alphabet sounds, this is a much tougher job.  They are encouraged to look around the room and copy letters or words that they know to represent their stories. Every attempt is encouraged and celebrated! With more practice with letters and sounds as well as lots of opportunities to write, they will continue to improve.  It is exciting to watch their development!  ​

​After "kidwriting", it is important to celebrate their attempts by sharing their work with me and also with their peers. They read back their finished stories to their partner (or to me) using their finger to track their printing. Listening to their partner is also an important skill. When done, the listener must then give a compliment to their partner. It can be about their writing, their reading, their illustrations, their story, etc. Positive comments are "bucket fillers"!

It's always easier to do things when we know what the criteria and expectations are. Below is our story criteria that we use when the children draw pictures as well as when they write. ​

This past week the children had an opportunity to try maneuvering wheelchairs around the school as well as do some P.E. games with them in the gym with Mrs. Caputo.

​To wrap up our UnPlug and Play week, we enjoyed having a book time in the gym with all of the other primary classes. We wore our pajamas, took our blankets and books to the gym and snuggled up with our stuffies while we quietly read independently. The students did a super job!