The Penguin Who Hated the Cold, by Barbara Brenner

This is a silly little story about a penguin named Pablo who hated the cold. He’ll do anything to find a warm place to live. Follow him on his adventure from the cold Antarctic to the warm tropics. This book is a great jumping board for teaching opposites.

Materials

Night before, freeze small animal counters into cubes and blocks of ice.
Several trays of plain ice cubes
Hot water bottle
2 large boxes of jello
1 banana, 1 apple or pear, several strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and cherries
Animal homes cards

Vocabulary

Chilly (always feeling cold, colder than cool but not as cold as frozen)
Hate (to really, really not like something)

Before Reading the Story

Talk with the children about the weather outside (this story is best read in the winter or the summer). Ask the children what kinds of things they like to do in the cold winter weather (make snowballs, sled, eat snow, dig) and then ask them what kinds of things they like to do in the hot summer weather (swim, ride bicycles, roll in grass, pick flowers). Tell them that winter and summer are opposites. Hot and cold are opposites. Introduce the story by saying that today we are going to read a story about a penguin named Pablo. Penguins live where it is always cold. Pablo does not like the cold though, at all! Pablo wants to go where it is warm. Let’s find out if he gets there.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; progresses in abilities to respond appropriately abin conversations and discussions with peers and adults.

Reading the Story

Stop on each page where Pablo says goodbye to his friends. Do you think that he will get to a place where it is always warm? If not, what do you think will happen?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

After Reading the Story

Make a graph and have the children mark if they like the cold weather or the hot weather better. Count the total and write the numbers underneath.

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to express awareness o fself in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Discovery

Make float and sink jello. Have the children help cut the fruits into bite sized pieces. Make the jello according to the directions. Let the children take turns dropping the fruit into the jello and predict if it will float or sink. Let the jello cool and eat.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations. AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; shows growing independence in hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands, brushing teeth , and toileting.

Music and Movement

Fill the hot water bottle up with water and use it to play hot potato. (Pass the hot water bottle around until the music stops. The child holding the water bottle must name something that you do either in the hot or the cold weather.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Show children how to use two blocks to pretend skate. Put on music and slide around the carpet.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Sing the Opposite Song (to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opr_7f0Z0os

Everything I always say,

You always say the opposite.

When I say _________,

You say ___________!

Good opposites that go with this story are; cold-hot, forwards-backwards, up-down, outside-inside, on-off, float-sink

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare and contrast objects, events, and experiences. AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Blocks

Ask the children if they can make a house to keep Pablo warm. If you have a stuffed penguin, this would be a good center to put it in.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; shows growing capacity to maintain concentration over time on a task, question, set of directions or intersections, despite distractions or interruptions. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Art

Put out finger paint. Instead of using hands to paint, give the children ice cubes to move the paint about the paper.

Creative Arts/Art; gains in ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Sand and Water

Put the animals in the frozen ice blocks into the table. Ask the children to see if they can get the animals out. (warm water with spoons works as does using blocks for a hammer effect)

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; grows in recognizing and solving problems through active exploration, including trial and error, and interactions and discussions with peers and adults.

Library and Writing

Depending upon the season you are in (summer or winter), ask the children to tell you a sign of the season and draw a picture about. With older children they may be able to draw and tell about an opposite season also. (Summer; sunny, swim, flowers, shorts, sandals/Winter; snow, sled, no leaves, mittens, boots)

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Dramatic Play

Put out dress ups that are opposite the season you are experiencing. For summer you could put out bathing suit, sunglasses, and towels. For winter you could put out boots, mittens, and scarves.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play. AND Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to attributes of time and temperature.

Math and Manipulatives

Make a set of animal homes cards and let the children see if they can put the animals in their proper home.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Outdoor Play

Roll in the grass or snow.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness.

Transitions

Ask children to say or show you opposite of a word that you give.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Resources

Swimmy, by Leo Lionni

Swimmy loves to explore the beautiful sea but there is a problem. How to keep the bigger fish from eating him and his friends. Join Swimmy on his adventure and see how he solves this difficult problem.

Materials

26 fish colored in a variety of colors (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and purple) Put alphabet letters on the fish
2 whole fish, those with large scales work best
Checkerboard fish pattern

Vocabulary

Fierce (to be really aggressive and angry)
Marvel (to see something really wonderful)
School of fish (a group of fish that swim together)

Before Reading the Story

When everyone is sitting down and ready to listen, tell the children that you have a problem. Explain your problem and let the children help come up with solutions to solve it (I wanted to go outside to play with my friend but I could not find my shoes and it was cold outside; the big kids in the neighborhood keep teasing me because I wear glasses etc). Encourage the children to come up with a variety of solutions. Remind them that at school solutions means solving a problem without violence. Show the children the cover of the book and tell them that the story today is about a fish named Swimmy who has a problem. Let’s read the story and see if he can come up with a good solution.

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; progresses in responding sympathetically to peers who are in need, upset, hurt, or angry; and in expressing empathy or caring for others. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Reading the Story

Make sure that you stop throughout the story and ask questions to know children’s comprehension (Do you know what it means when the author says a school of fish? How do you think Swimmy felt when all his brothers and sisters were eaten by the big tuna fish? Look at Swimmy swimming in the ocean, what do you think marveled means? Have you ever seen something marvelous? How do you think Swimmy will get his new friends to swim with him?

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

Go back through the story and re-look at the pictures. Can the children name any of the marvelous creatures that Swimmy saw in the sea?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Give each child a colored fish. Have the children stand up and swim their fish behind their back, through their legs, over their head, around their foot, etc.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.

Ask all the orange fish to swim over to the door and the blue fish to swim to the table. Choose a destination for each color fish and see if the children can follow through without your help. Tell all the red fish to hold their fish high and the blue fish to hold their fish low. Ask all the green and purple fish to swim together.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Discovery

Bring in 2 whole fish (those with large scales work best). Have the children paint the fish with tempera paint and then put a piece of light construction paper on top. The child presses down on the paper and gently rubs it. Peel the paper off of the fish and you will have a fish print. Although this is messy, children seem to really enjoy this project. Ask a local fish market for a donation or find a fisherman who will share his catch with you. With the children you can name the parts of the fish from their print.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes. AND Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

Music and Movement

Ask the children to stand up because you are going to pretend to be a school of fish. First everyone needs to put their wrists on their hips and move them back and forth. These are your fish gills. Now everyone needs to sway to and fro because fish kind of wiggle through the water. And don’t forget to make your fish lips by sucking your cheeks in. Now you are fish but does anyone know what a school of fish is? Explain that a school of fish swims through the water together. Put on some instrumental music (classical) and have the children follow you about the room swimming close together. Can they stay in a group without falling behind or banging into one another?

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Teach your children a fish song like All the Fish are Swimming in the Water https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60RRRq4dJ58

All the fish are Swimming in the Water

All the fish are swimming in the water, swimming in the water, swimming in the water

All the fish are swimming in the water, bubble, bubble, bubble, pop!

The big old fish are swimming in the water, swimming in the water, swimming in the water.

The big old fish are swimming in the water, bubble, bubble, bubble, pop!

Tiny fish are swimming in the water, swimming in the water, swimming in the water.

Tiny fish are swimming in the water, bubble, bubble, bubble, pop!

Put palms together and move back and forth. This is the sign language word for fish. When you say pop! Have the children clap their hands.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.

Play the song Cooperation and let the children dance to the beat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94klgOOoX5c.

Creative Arts/Movement; expresses through movement and dancing what is felt and heard in various musical tempos and styles.

Blocks

In the story the seaweed grew tall. Can you stand your blocks up tall and make a seaweed forest? Can the child stack blocks 10 plus high?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Art

Put large fish shapes at the easel. Only put out primary colors (red, yellow, blue, and white). Encourage the children to mix the colors together to make new colors.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Sand and Water

Any fish toys that you have to put in the water. Small fish nets to scoop.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Library and Writing

Use the colored fish that you made for rug time. Have the children help attach paperclips to each one. Lay on the floor alphabet side up. Attach a magnet to a string at one end and a small stick at the other. Children can then fish for letters or colors.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity , and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer. AND Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; identifies at least 10 letters of the alphabet, especially those in their own name.

Dramatic Play

Math and Manipulatives

Use the checkerboard fish pattern to color the fish. Help the children start their patterns and see if they can follow through on it.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; enhances abilities to recognize, duplicate, and extend simple patterns using a variety of materials.

Outdoor Play

Use the movement activity of swimming as a school to get to and from the playground. See if the children can move once around the playground before they leave off to play.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. AND Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Transitions

Put the alphabet fish on the wall with tape where the children can easily see them. Ask a child to find the fish that starts with the letter of their name. The fish that has two of the same letter in your name (Sally), etc.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; increases in ability to notice the beginning letters in familiar words.

Fish for Math & Manipulative pattern making. I like to add colored feather to make the tail fin.

The Wind Blew, by Pat Hutchins

The wind blew, and blew, and blew. This story told in rhyme is the tale of the winds mischief one day as it blew through town.

Materials

Bubble Solution and bubble blowers (blowers can be made using pipe cleaners or cylinders)
A box of materials that will blow with a strong breath or a hand fan and items that will not
1 straw per child
Watered down tempera paint
Several colors of crepe paper but into 2 foot lengths
small clothesline and clothespins

Vocabulary

Content (to be happy with something)
Words from story to be acted out in movement

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children to look out the window, can they see the wind? (No). How can we tell if the wind is there? Let the children describe their observations. Explain that we can not see the wind but we can see what the wind is moving. Ask the children if they can tell from which way the wind is blowing?

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Now hold up the book so the children can see both the front and back cover. Ask them if they can think is happening? Can they think of a good title for the story?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in ability to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Read the poem, Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti. Can the children think of other places they have seen the wind blow? (Once I was at the beach and the wind blew the sand into my eyes, the flowers, the wind blew my hair all messy, my dogs ears were in the wind).

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Reading the Story

As you turn each page, ask the children if they can guess what the next thing will be blown by the wind? Give them a hint by telling them to look carefully at the pictures for clues.

After Reading the Story

Explain to the children that in the story, the wind was blowing blustery hard to make all those items fly away. And though it is fun to play outside on a windy day, there are times when it is important to stay indoors and be safe. Ask the children if they can think of why this would be so? (A storm is coming, a tree could fall, a tornado might be nearby). Spend a few minutes talking to the children about tornados and what you should do if there were one. Have a tornado drill.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Discovery

Put out a box filled with items that will blow with your breath and items that will not. Have the children try to blow the items off the table and sort according to those that can be blown and those that can not be blown. Puff ball, styrofoam plate, crayon, feather, wadded piece of paper, flat sheet of paper, a block, plastic bowl, scissors, etc.. Ask the children if they can think of any items on the playground that a strong wind could blow away? Make a list.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Music and Movement

Tell the children to pretend to be a tree. Plant your feet firmly onto the ground. Now pretend that there is a slight breeze blowing and your branches (arms) tremble slightly. Explain that now the wind is picking up and getting stronger and it moves your branches (arms) all around. The wind is getting stronger still and now it is making your trunk (body) sway and bend. Reverse the order.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Sing, I Wish I Was a Windmill to the tune of Did You Ever See A Lassie. Children swing arms in big loops as they sing.

Oh I wish I was a windmill, a windmill, a windmill

Oh I wish I was a windmill, I know what I’d do.

I’d swing this way and that.

I’d swing way and this way and that way

And this way and that way,

Oh I wish I was a windmill, when the wind blew.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Tell the children that you are going to act out some of the winds movements from the story. Give each child a length of crepe paper and put on some lively music. Can the children make their crepe paper sweep up into the air, whip back and forth, toss it up into the air, lift it up and let it fall to the ground, whirl it, flutter it, all throw them up so that they mix in the air and fall to the ground.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Blocks

If you have foam blocks or light cardboard blocks, encourage the children to use these today and when they have finished building a tower, to blow the structure over. Can they build a tower 10 blocks tall?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.

Art

Make paper fans. Give each child a piece of colored construction paper that they can color on. After they have colored, show them how to fold it accordian style back and forth to make a fan. Fold one end over and staple.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops in growing strength, control, and dexterity needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Waterdown some of your paints and put them on the table with a spoon. Give each child a straw and have them practice blowing air out of it (remind them NOT to suck in or they will get paint in their mouths). The child dips a spoonful of paint onto their paper and uses the straw to blow the paint across the paper. Continue using more paint. This is best done using the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) as they will run together making new colors.

Creative Arts/Art;gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Library and Writing

Ask the children to think of something that the wind blew in the story or in their experiences. Have them illustrate their idea. When they are finished, write across the bottom of the page; The wind blew (child’s name and item) The wind blew Kerry’s hat. Hang these on the wall or turn them into a classroom book.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Sand and Water

Water and boat play today. If you do not have small boats, you plastic lids. Challenge the children by asking, How many counting bears can you put onto the boat before it begins to sink?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Dramatic Play

Tell the children at your house after you wash your clothes you hang them on a clothesline for the wind and sun to dry them. Show the children how to hang the dress-up clothes and doll clothes onto the line.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops in growing strength, control, and dexterity needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Math and Manipulatives

On the length table make tape marks every 6-inches apart. Give a child a puffball at one end of the table and see how far they can blow it with one big breath. How many lines were they able to cross over with their puffball? How many breaths did it take to blow it from one end of the table to the other? Give each child a ten-frame to use to record their count.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, and charts.

Outdoor Play

Bring your bubble play outside. Show the children how to figure out which way the wind is blowing (lick a finger and the side that feels cool is the direction from which the wind is blowing). Have the children stand with their backs to the wind to produce the best bubbles.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties , differences and comparisons among objects and materials.

Show the children how to tie one end of the crepe paper to the fence. If is is a windy day, let the wind flap them. If it is not a windy day, weave the crepe paper in and out of the fence.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, using scissors, putting together puzzles, stringing beads, and reproducing shapes and patterns.

Transitions

Ask the children to name something that the wind could blow away with a gentle breeze (like when you blow something), a blustery wind (like in our story today), or a tornado like wind. Ask what is something that the wind could not blow away? Accept all answers.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.