Montessori Inspired Penguin Unit for Preschoolers

We are exploring the world of penguins this month and Antarctica! Materials here are a mixture of old and new (some were Mavi’s).  There’s no timeline for this unit, we’ll do this spontaneously all throughout the month of January, in between Vito’s Montessori works and other activities.


I used to have intensive studies with Mavi when he was about Vito’s age, and at times way too advanced for his age.  Now I don’t want to go there again, because Vito is NOT Mavi and is more active and playful.  So my approach is to make unit activities a lot simpler and a little less academic.  For Vito’s age all he ever needs to know about penguins are:

• Penguins are birds
• Most penguins live in Antarctica / Where is Antarctica
• Penguins eat fish
• Basic body parts of a penguin
• Life cycle of a penguin (optional)

PENGUINS ARE BIRDS


Vito and I are using these books to learn about penguins:  Antarctica (Usborne Beginners) and Penguins (Froglets Learners). If Penguins My First Discovery is available, I highly recommend that you purchase this elusive book.  It’s really really good for young kids.  We used to have it in the library, but now it’s not available.


PENGUINS OF ANTARCTICA

I made this Nienhuis inspired Montessori Animal Continent material.  Vito has worked with our Montessori geography puzzle already and is very much familiar now with continents.  We’ve been watching animal documentaries on Netflix during the holidays and Vito loved all those animals in the arctic and Antarctica.  We’re starting with penguins right now and we’ll see if we can still touch on animals in the arctic regions. By the way we are using Safari Ltd Penguin TOOB figures.


PENGUINS EAT FISH

This is a math activity using a spinner and Fish Counters Set.  We will feed the penguin according to the number resulting from the spin.


PARTS OF A PENGUIN

We will identify the different parts of the penguin (basic) and how each part functions.  We will be using our Montessori penguin wood puzzle, 3 part cards and booklet (for Mommy to read).



I came across this post from Montessori Journey on how to walk like a penguin. This will be a fun activity for Vito, he’ll love this!

LIFE CYCLE OF A PENGUIN

An optional activity for preschoolers, especially if they haven’t been introduced to any life cycle activities yet.  I’ll try to explain this to Vito in such a way that he’ll understand how the Mommy Penguin gives birth to a baby penguin. The aim of this activity is to be able to order the events in a penguin’s life.


ARTS AND CRAFTS

I am thinking of doing similar to the DeepSpaceSparkle.  It’s my favourite art tutorial website and I even bought a few lessons.  Here’s a preview of their penguin art projects (IMAGE FROM DEEPSPACESPARKLE)


SMALL WORLD PLAY / SENSORY TUB

This was last year. The boys would like to do this again so most probably I’ll take this PLAYMOBIL SuperSet Penguin Habitat out of the box and some new materials.

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