the Penguin investigations continue

This week in 1R, students continued to learn about penguins. The boys and girls completed several activities in literacy, computer lab, science and social studies that helped us become better observers, map makers and writers! 

writing about penguins

creating tales with technology!

The boys and girls have been documenting their learning on the computer with our technology teacher, Mr. Padula. Each student is becoming an expert on one penguin species. This week, the students labeled pictures of their penguin and recorded the characteristics they noticed that were specific to their species. We love when Mr. Padula comes to 1R, because we always learn something new! 

becoming an expert

We have had a wonderful time learning about penguins and want to share our new knowledge with others!  Each student is becoming an expert on their species. 


The boys and girls each have been creating a nonfiction book that will tell the reader all about one species of penguins. The reader will learn everything from what the species looks like to where they live. It has been exciting to add new pages as we learn new information!  

Take a look at some of the writers adding pages to their nonfiction books! 

1R cartographers

We have been learning about where in the world different penguins live. Did you know that no penguins species are native to the Northern hemisphere? Students labeled maps of the world to add to their books showing where penguin species live and where the equator is located. Here are a few of our map makers hard at work!

how do penguins stay warm?

Throughout our explorations, we have learned that there are many different ways you can learn about a topic. As a class, we discussed how you can look for information in a book or computer, ask an expert, or conduct an investigation. When learning about how penguins stay warm, 1R students wanted to do an investigation and try it out for themselves! We had fun learning about ways in which the penguins that live in cold environments are able to keep warm.

Did you know that penguins stay insulated with a layer of air under their feathers? 1R students felt what this was like by putting a small bag of ice on top of their hands, and boy did it feel cold! We then layered a bag filled with air underneath the bag filled with ice. The layer of air completely insulated us from the cold! This helped us understand one way penguins are able to stay warm in cold environments. 

The students below are learning about the layer of fat that penguins have under their skin called blubber. Blubber helps keep penguins warm when swimming in icy water! The boys and girls stayed warm in their own small bin of cold water when their hands were wrapped in a bag layered with crisco, a cooking fat similar to blubber. We were impressed by how well this worked to keep our hands dry and warm!

The boys and girls also learned about the wax that penguins make. They rub this wax over their feathers to help make them waterproof and windproof. Students recreated this by using the wax from crayons on paper. Students dropped water on top and noticed how the image they colored in crayon repelled the water and stayed dry, while the other they colored in marker did not. 

         Huddle          up!

Lastly, we learned that penguins huddle shoulder to shoulder in groups to help keep each other warm. The boys and girls 
recreated a huddle much like penguins in cold environments do. The inner students agreed that they were very warm in the middle!