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

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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