P is for Penguin -

I have to say that I am having so much fun teaching Kindergarten at our Homeschool Coop. It is an absolute blast. The best thing about it is that it makes me create lessons for my third child — and we all know that third children do not get the same homeschooling experience as the first.

I love doing letter lessons for these little guys and the letter P did not disappoint!
First we read all about Pip’s journey to find a million in the Usborne book “How Big is a Million.” I love the illustrations in this book. Usborne uses an artist who paints each page, and then the text is placed on top. It really kept the children’s’ attention and the surprise at the end is worth it to purchase the book if you don’t have it already.

We then did a splotch painting inspired by Artsy Mama. A tip for you, make sure that you put the paint in a slow release spay bottle. You don’t want them to glob too much on or it wrecks the final product. I had my son add orange feet and an orange beak to his bird and it really turned out quite nicely. I really enjoyed how surprised he was to see the shape unfold when he opened the paper.

The third activity that we did were these amazing worksheets from Teachers Pay Teachers. I just love these. Plus the great thing about teaching multiples is that I now have them for my next child. There were so many to choose from and the possibilities are endless. Looking for a Penguin math sheet? How about socials? Science is always a blast. How about writing about penguins? Now with the world wide web we homeschoolers can easily find free or almost free sheets for our child’s ability or interests at the click of a mouse!

We did 3 more worksheets which you can find here, here, and here. After we finished the worksheets, we moved on to another craft. Since I already had the paint out from our first craft we kept within that theme. This one is not for the ticklish!

First your child chooses a piece of card-stock that they would like as the background. A nice blue is a good choice. Then you take of their shoes and socks on one foot. Paint the ball and heel of the foot as well as the outside of the arch in black. Then paint the inside white. Try not to get kicked when they start to squirm from being tickled! Get them to step directly down (with pressure) on the card-stock and then lift their foot right up.

Fop over to the sink, or have some wipes nearby.

Wait a moment for the penguin shape to dry, and then add more to the wings, or the flippers if your child wants. They can paint in eyes, or add googley eyes if they think that would be better. Cut out a beak from orange card-stock or pain one on. Your child can also add more to the background if they would like.

Isn’t that so cute?

I absolutely love how it turned out. I think the penguins are so adorable. If we had more time I would have made a sensory bin for the kids as well or some cloud dough to play with — but I will save those for another day.