Penguin Fun

Is it really only Tuesday...?!? It feels like it should at least be Thursday, right? 


We've been busy in our classroom these past two weeks working on penguins! Since friendly letters are one of the old CA standards (are they old now?) and nonfiction writing is a new Common Core Standard, I'd thought I'd mix the two together to do some friendly letter writing about penguins. Especially since we'll still be tested on the old standards, but we should be teaching the new standards... ??? Baffling. Anyways....


Here are the prewrites we've been hard at work on: 

Sorry- this one's not quite finished...

In addition to the hard core, common core, nonfiction reading and writing we've been doing, we also created these adorable Emperor Penguin projects from Reagan Tunstall's Winter Art & Writing pack. Check out how stinkin' cute they are!:

And considering I had work up from SEPTEMBER, (yes! I said September- don't judge me. I just have more fun things to do than change bulletin boards which is one of my least favorite things to do in the whole world!!!) it was time to get some new work up, and this project was PERFECT! 

We've also been working on The Bubbly Blonde's Playful Penguins Math & Literacy Centers which the kids L-O-V-E. 

And this Write-Around-the-Room synonym activity from Plug-N-Plan was great because it got the kids up and moving. And thinking! Love it.  

And it all has to do with penguins. And who doesn't love penguins...?  :) And I should probably stop starting sentences with and. Anyways...   

I need to get better at taking more pictures of this stuff in action! 

Thank you to all of those amazing teachers with amazing ideas and units I used to make this penguin week come together. I am forever grateful for you and your ideas and your computer skills!!! Hopefully I will get there one day soon and have some fun stuff to share! :)