Penguin Themed Homeschool Crafts and Activities for Toddlers

 

Penguins are some of the most recognizable and beloved birds in the world, and toddler LOVE THEM!

While researching homeschool topics and curriculum for toddlers and pre-schoolers, I kept running into penguins. They are everywhere! When I floated the topic by my girls (aged 2 and 4), their reaction was a little something like this:

Me – “Hey girls, wanna learn about penguins this month?”

Girl – “Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!! Oh my gosh oh my gosh! Yes! Penguins!! I love penguins! Ahhhhhh!!!” *running around in circles*

So! Penguins it is! Below are some of the penguin themed crafts and activities we have undertaken in the past few weeks. Check it out!

Letting Toddlers Adopt a Penguin in Their Name

This was actually one of the LAST things we did in our little DIY homeschool curriculum, but we introduced the concept first and made it something to look forward to. While watching videos and doing crafts, I kept talking about two things: a big field trip to actually SEE penguins and symbolically adopting a penguin.

Knowing that they would get to meet these little critters in person AND would have a chance to “help take care of them” with an adoption made the girls so much more interested and invested in the topic of penguins. And I think it goes without saying that adopting a penguin through a conservation oriented adoption is a great gesture for kids to make and does double duty of teaching kids about conservation and giving, AND benefits actual penguin and charitable organizations.

When adopting a penguin, the bird’s benefactor does not get to take the penguin home (sadly!!!) but the adoption funds go directly to a great cause. While adoption funds are used in different ways between different organizations, typical ways penguin adoptions can help support these birds include:

• Cleaning up oil spills or other pollution that directly impacts penguins and other seabirds
• Feeding and caring for injured, oiled or vagrant penguins or abandoned chicks
• Supporting captive breeding programs to increase penguin populations
• Preserving and protecting penguin nesting colonies
• Funding research projects and conservation studies involving penguins
• Promoting penguin-themed educational programs and presentations
• Supporting the care of captive penguins that cannot be released to the wild
• Offsetting the operational costs for penguin rehabilitation and research facilities

Every dollar that is raised through reputable penguin adoptions helps support these amazing birds and raise awareness for conservation issues that impact them. And kids are VERY capable of grasping these concept and knowing that THEIR contribution is doing something good in the world. Arming kids with the knowledge that their giving can make a difference is a powerful thing that they can learn early, and will carry with them for life!

Different organizations and facilities offer different benefits for adopting penguins, which range from personalized adoption certificates, photos of the penguin or other gifts. When adopting a penguin on behalf of a toddler, do some research to find an organization that offers a certificate with an actual picture of the penguin you adopted and / or something tangible for your kids to have on hand to remind them of their adoption.

We went with an adoption through the World Wildlife Fund because the kids could pick the specific penguin species they wanted to adopt, and they were provided with a personalized picture certificate we could print out and hang up on their art wall right away (while waiting for the actual certificate to arrive in the mail!) AND they will be receiving a baby penguin plushie doll. For good measure I even let them unofficially “name” their penguin… (His name is Tonto by the way…)

If you don’t want to adopt through a large organization online, look around locally! Many local zoos, aviaries and aquariums offer wildlife adoptions to directly support their residents and local conservation efforts. Check with your favorite places to learn what options are available to support penguins in your own back yard.

Icy Penguin Playscape and Penguin Paper Crafts for Toddlers

After scouring Pinterest for the PERFECT penguin themed crafts for my kiddos, I found the suggestion to let kids play with penguin figures with ice cubes. And man, was it a homerun with our kids!

I ordered the mini penguin figures on Amazon (then found them the next day for waaay cheaper at Hobby Lobby.. ugh!!) and then we got a baking sheet with a lip and glass baking dishes and froze our icy landscape in the freezer. (I also filled a silicone baking sheet with water to freeze for larger icy building blocks). The next morning, voila! Frozen icy playscape!

We filled the glass baking dishes with water so the penguins could splash and play and the kids went NUTS!! They played with this project until the ice was almost completely melted!

The kiddos also made penguin crafts with hand prints (GREAT for keep sakes, our little 3 month old Rowan even got his own penguin!), and penguin coloring pages we printed out from various websites offering free coloring sheets.

Throughout the While doing our penguin crafts, I had the kids watching educational penguin videos on YouTube.. there are TONS to choose from, from educational snippets, to zoo features, to funny penguin compilations and sing along songs.

Visiting Penguins at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

We are super lucky to have a couple of really great options for viewing penguins here in California. We decided to take the kiddos to the Monterey Bay Aquarium since the penguins get really interactive around their twice daily feeding times.

We played up the trip for about a month to get the kids REALLY excited when the day finally came to go see the penguins in person! The girls had a blast, even though the huge crowds were driving mom and dad a little crazy. (Try going mid-week if you can, we went on a Saturday and OMG.. never again.)

The penguins are SO FUN and sociable! Thyme was kissing them through the glass, and they were chasing her around.. if she crouched down, they swam under the water to follow her and then popped up over the water when she stood up.. it was so cute!

In addition to the penguin interaction through the display glass, the kids got to watch the penguins being fed, and play with some hands on interactive penguin displays and exhibits. It was a lot of fun, and we ALMOST walked out with an annual membership… (almost.. those @#$%! crowds though)!

Learn Some Fun Facts About Penguins!

Penguins are some of the most unique and amazing birds because of their physical adaptations to survive in unusual climates and to live mostly at sea. Below are some fun facts about penguins to share with your toddlers (or learn something new yourself!):

• There are 18 unique species of penguin in the world, though two species – the northern rockhopper and southern rockhopper – are sometimes considered the same species. While some penguins are widespread and thriving, 13 of them have declining populations. Five types of penguins are considered endangered and facing possible extinction if strong protection and conservation measures are not taken.
• Penguins are primarily found only in the Southern Hemisphere. Penguin populations can be found in South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, as well as many small islands in the southern Pacific Ocean.
• Penguins powerful flippers and streamlined bodies make them very accomplished swimmers. They are the fastest swimming and deepest diving species of any birds and can stay underwater up to 20 minutes at a time.
• While swimming, penguins will leap in shallow arcs above the surface of the water, a practice called porpoising. This coats their plumage with tiny bubbles that reduce friction, allowing them to swim as fast as 22 miles per hour!

• Penguins’ eyes work better underwater than they do in the air, giving them superior eyesight to spot prey while hunting, even in cloudy, dark or murky water, or where water is turbulent.
• The emperor penguin is the largest penguin species, standing up to 48 inches tall and weighing up to 90 pounds when mature and not fasting to incubate eggs. (That is taller and heavier than my four year old!)
• The little penguin is the smallest penguin at just 12 inches tall and weighing only 2 pounds.
• The yellow-eyed penguin is believed to be the rarest penguin species, with only approximately 5,000 birds surviving in the wild, though population numbers fluctuate. They can only be found along the southeastern coast of New Zealand and smaller nearby islands.

• Penguins are highly social, colonial birds that form breeding colonies called rookeries numbering in the tens of thousands. They may use the same nesting grounds for thousands of years and the largest colonies can number in the millions, with many penguins staying with the same mates for years. Parents and chicks use their superb hearing to easily keep track of one another even in a crowd.
• Emperor penguins and king penguins do not make any sort of nests. Instead, a single egg for each mated pair is incubated on a parent’s feet and kept warm by a flap of skin called a brood pouch. Incubation can take 8-10 weeks and occurs during winter, so the egg must always be kept warm and safe.
• Emperor penguin males incubate their eggs for two months in the winter without eating while the females are at sea. During that time, males live off their fat reserves and may lose half their body weight. When the females return shortly after the chicks hatch, they switch parental duties and the females fast while the males go to sea to replenish their fat stores.
• Depending on the species, a wild penguin can live 15 to 20 years. During that time, they spend up to 75 percent of their lives at sea.

Have you ever “adopted” an animal through a conservation agency? Share below!