World Penguin Day

April 25 is World Penguin Day! This can be a wonderful topic for a unit study for a day, or even for a week. Here are some ideas for World Penguin Day, if you want to make it special. To make your penguin day (or week) successful, I recommend you prepare in advance of the day.

Math: Including Math in this unit study is a stretch, but for your youngest students you could create a math sheet for the day where there are pictures of penguins on the page. Another way to incorporate penguins would be to make black and white penguin pictures to use as counters, such as a piece of paper with penguins I have drawn that I then cut up to be counters. Some of the pictures could even be pictures of ten penguins so that you can show a tens column and a ones column.

Science: Learning about penguins is amazing; there are many types of penguins! Find images of various types of penguins and introduce your student to as many types of penguins as you can. Have your student learn the names of the types of penguins.

Art: Have your student pick their favorite type of penguin and make an art project of it. Tuxedo only require a white sheet of paper and a black pen or marker, crayon or pencil, while a Macaroni penguin will also require some yellow.

Geography: Do your students know all the continents? Penguins are one of the few animals actually living on Antarctica! There are also types of penguins on many other continents. Your student can learn where different types of penguins live naturally in the wild.

Literature: This is the one I thought of immediately – what a great excuse to read Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. Use World Penguin Day as an excuse for launching a reading of this wonderful children’s classic! Even as a read-aloud, this book can usually be finished in one week.

Just for fun: Today can be a day to dress in black and white. If you are crafty, you can sew a quick vest for each student out of black felt, then each of you can wear black pants, a white T-shirt and a black vest. For additional fun, you can also make a bow-tie-shaped cut-out of felt and safety-pin it to the T-shirt!

World Penguin Day can be a day to infuse some fun into your routine. By April, we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel as the school year goes. Sometimes this gives us new enthusiasm, but other times, it can look like a marathon where we just don’t know how we will reach the finish line. Mixing things up can give everyone some new enthusiasm, helping us be more cheerful as we finish our school year!

Diana Malament homeschooled three children over a span of 27 years. She homeschooled with financial limitations, and when times were less difficult. She has homeschooled through many good times and many challenging times. Diana hopes to encourage you on your homeschool journey.