Penguin Learning Activities for Kids

After talking about Antarctica the other day, it got me thinking about activities involving animals that live in cold climates. So today we’re taking a look at penguin learning activities.

To begin with the basics, Living Life and Learning has printables for the parts of a penguin and the life cycle of a penguin for kids to fill out.

Homeschool Preschool has a cute counting penguins printable book for kids to use to practice counting and writing numbers up to 20, while Life Over C’s has penguin number mats for counting 1-10 and a penguin-themed hundreds chart.

Work simple word problems with penguins and fish while using a printable of a penguin and fish with this activity from Natalie Lynn Kindergarten. The word problems involve subtraction, but you can print the penguin without the words and use them for addition as well.

Or you can feed the penguin with this printable dice rolling game from Hello Wonderful. It’s shown using Goldfish crackers but you can use pompoms or other markers as the “food” if you don’t want to use real food in this activity.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a free 74-page printable full of penguin related activities, including three-part cards, letter tracing, life cycle pages, match activities and tons more.

Speaking of three-part cards, 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1 has some pretty free printable cards with different species of penguins.

Work on letter recognition and beginning sounds with this penguin alphabet printable set from Stay at Home Educator.

The penguin emotions cards from Natural Beach Living are a great way to work in some social-emotional learning. And don’t forget art! Learn how to draw a penguin with Kids Activities Blog.

Looking for some penguin-themed books? The National Geographic Readers book on penguins is a great factual book about penguins, but there are lots of fun picture books with a penguin theme like If You Were a Penguin and How Do Penguins Play? And of course there’s Mr. Popper’s Penguins, too!

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All About Antarctica for Kids

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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