Hi! Well, with the onset of one of our snowiest months of the year, we’re celebrating by working on our Mr. Popper’s Penguins Unit Study! This book isn’t moving as quickly as the last one, but it’s fun to do penguin stuff in wintertime!
In this unit we are learn all about penguins including different types, the penguin food chain, and vocabulary.
Here is Turbo and Strawberry Shortcake working on his story timeline. I love Mr. Popper with his ladder, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite activities, and it’s a great way to help them remember what the main plot of the story is!
They will also do a character analysis of main characters in the story, alphabetize Mr. Popper’s penguins, learn about different occupations, and write their own penguin poem.
Strawberry Shortcakes Penguin Poem:
The Penguin is small, he’s not very tall.
He eats fish and never wants to miss.
I find him here , there, and everywhere.
What a sight of black and white.
He loves to eat, and always wants a treat!
He waddles, he troddles,
he rarely runs, but he always has lots of fun.
But never trust a penguin if he runs!
Turbo’s Penguin Poem:
He who eats fish
Is sure to be a penguin.
(…Okay, so when I told him that not all poems rhyme, I didn’t realize I would be getting a Penguin fortune cookie saying!)
Here are some more of our lapbook insides…
The units also include forms for predicting story plots, character analysis, identifying the protagonist and antagonist, a story timeline, and a final book report on the novel.
And that’s it for now! Once we’re done with this one, we’ll be moving onto the Black Beauty Unit Study!
I hope you are enjoying the Classic Literature Unit Studies!
Happy New Year!
I have a question for you: Do you kids ever get tired of doing the worksheets, cutting and pasting involved in the notebooking of an unit study?? What I mean is, do you ever hear: “oh, that is boring. I already know that.” And if so, how do you deal with that? thanks.
Tereza,
We do a lot of lap books and I think it depends on the child, but my kids love lap books and haven’t gotten bored with them yet. It gives them creative outlet as I let them add to them and make them different than what directions may say.
My 6 year old girl LOVES lapbooks and would do one every day if we had the time. I agree it depends on the child.
We’re reading the same story right now! Unfortunately, I think my kindergarten sidekick is still a little young for your study – we’ll have to read it again next year so we can make your fun-looking lapbook!
My son has already done this one and he loved it! He has read Mr Popper’s Penguins several times now 🙂
Not sure if you’ve ever seen this book, but I’ve found it helpful teaching various kinds of poetry when I taught fourth grade. It’s called “P is for Poems” (maybe it’s poetry). Anyways, for each letter of the alphabet it would describe a type of poem and teach you how to write it. So for “A” we read an acrostic poem and then wrote one. My point of this whole comment was when I had an assignment to write a poem, the kids would look through the book to see what kind of poem they wanted to write. It’s a great book and even gave me a new appreciation for poems and I found confidence in writing poetry. Keep up the good work!!
Hi and happy new year!
I am a new homeschooling mom of a first grader and 3 other younger ones. I am just wondering if this unit study is an option for my first grader or if it is a little too advance for him. I also found many copies of Mr. Popper’s Penguins on amazon so I am not sure which copy to order. Thank you so much for all your information!
My second grader and Kindergartener both are doing the literature studies from CofaH. There are some activities/ assignments that I don’t have my K student do. If there is a lot of writing I will let him dictate and write for him so he doesn’t get frustrated or let him just listen to what his sister is doing. For the most part your 1st grader should be able to do everything.
Wonderful, thank you so much Megan! I can’t wait to try this with him!
We are starting Mr. Popper’s Penguins next week….your study looks great!
We started this yesterday – this is actually a book I have never read so I am very excited.
Hi Erica, I have bought ur packs for letter of the week etc but I hope I’ve put the files together correctly. Can u do a quick brief on how u put urs together? I’ve noticed u have dividers in them. There’s 2 files I think one is the notebook and the other My ABC. I could have this completely wrong lol. Thanks xx
I started creating these with my First Grade class last week. They are now begging me each morning to skip all other subjects and just do the “Penguin Books!” Thanks for an amazing resource!
Hi Erica,
How many minutes do you do the reading and the lapbook? Do yo do it one day or you do lapbook for the whole week. Still so lost in organizing time in homeschooling. Should I keep on time or should I stay doing one lesson for 2hours? I am just in term 2 in homeschooling but I feel like giving up already. We homeschooled because we believe that these molding stage, we the parents should teach them not only academics but mostly to shepherd their hearts. But homeschooling is taking me by surprise. I feel like I am rushing all the time. Please let me know where and what I am doing wrong. By the way, I am from Australia. And homescchooling here is not normal especially because education here is free, well you can donate if you want but it’s covered by the government from k-year12 for public schools. Most of my friends think I am trying to be a superhero, but me and my husband have this conviction that we have to start working with their hearts, so we can greatly influence their hearts in loving Jesus!
Hi Kay
I to am in Australia, and I hear you, so many people say are you crazy, just put them in school, but I too feel that it is Gods direction in our family, so yes it is hard, but I need to look at the bigger picture. If you haven’t read educating the wholehearted child, it is a good read. Good luck