Penguin Activities for Preschoolers *FREEBIE*

It’s been a while, but I’m back!! Now that we are in the midst of winter, I’ve got some fun activities for you all about one of our favorite cold weather animals- PENGUINS! In this post you will find penguin books, center ideas, sensory play ideas and a fun craftivity especially designed for your preschoolers.

There is no shortage of adorable penguin themed books for little readers. I always try to balance out a mix of nonfiction and fiction books for my kids to choose from. Most of these titles have bright, engaging pictures as well as short, predictable text. My three year old daughter, Lillian, loves books but she doesn’t yet have the attention span for long drawn out stories. I will say Penguin Problems, by Jory John and Lane Smith is one of my absolute favorites. It’s a funny story about a penguin who complains. A lot. When a wise walruses teaches the penguin to appreciate the wonderful things in his life, he begins to see that life out on the frozen ice isn’t so bad. If you like Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman’s lovable character from the “Bear Snores On” series, you will love Where is Home, Little Pip? The story is about a sweet, curious penguin who wandered too far from the nest. The story and the illustrations are so engaging.

We spent a lot of time with Penguins Love Colors, by Sarah Aspinall. This is a fun story about 6 little penguins who all have a different favorite color, even though their home is surrounded by almost all white. They paint their mom a colorful picture in the snow, reviewing all the colors as they go, then get a much needed bath at the end.

I created a few colorful penguin activities to do after reading Penguin Loves Colors. The first activity Lillian chose was a colorful penguin and iceberg matching game. I set up the colorful penguins in an easy sensory tray and laid out the iceberg mats so that everybody could reach. We took turns choosing a penguin, naming the color and placing it on the correct iceberg. Lillian and her friend did a great job deciphering between pink and red, light blue and blue, and black and gray.

The next activity I created is a simple two piece puzzle set to match each color in the story, Penguins Love Colors. Each character was given a named based on their favorite color: Tulip, Tiger Lily, Dandelion, Violet, Bluebell, and Broccoli. With these puzzles, preschoolers can match the penguins to their corresponding picture by matching the colors.

Who loves Write the Room activities?? All of my kids love the challenge of finding all the elements of the story around the room and recording their findings on their recording sheets. I created a picture and word card for each colorful penguin in the story and designed three different recording sheets to choose from based on your learners’ abilities. The first recording sheet is for your pre-writers and requires only coloring to record their penguin findings around the room.

The other recording sheets are for writing (and coloring if you choose!). There are two versions of the Write the Room recording sheets. One version has a large space for preschoolers to write each word. This is better for those kiddos who are just beginning to write and need lots of room for their letters. The second version of the Write the Room recording sheet has smaller boxes designated for the words. You can give this sheet to your more confident writers to help them hone in on their fine motor skills.

Lillian is just starting to learn how to write letters, so I decided to use the Color the Room recording sheet with her. I taped the colored penguin cards to 6 plastic cups and provided the corresponding marker in each cup ahead of time. I hid the penguins around the house and had Lillian look for them. Each time she found another penguin, she could use the marker to color a penguin on the recording sheet. She was so engaged in the activity!

Up next, I created a Colorful Penguin Spinner Game. Preschoolers can use the spinner at the top of the page with a pencil and paper clip. This game can be used individually or with a partner. Preschoolers can take turns spinning the spinner and coloring in the corresponding colored penguin. The first color to get to the top of the graph is the winner! I like to laminate these or put them in page protectors so that they can be used over and over.

Another fun way to practice colors is with dot markers! I designed these colorful penguin cards with my pocket dice in mind. However, you can simply flip them over to make a draw pile or put them in a paper bag for students to pick from. As students roll (or choose) a new color, they dot a corresponding dot onto their Penguin Dot Art sheet. You can even add a standard dice to turn it into a counting game. For example, if your preschooler roles blue and 5, they add 5 blue dots to their picture.

Lillian is loves numbers and counting games, so we played with the color dice and number dice. We each took turns rolling the dice and dotting the penguin the right number of colored dots. She was so proud of her colorful penguin at the end!

Of course, the best way to follow up any story is with art. After we were finished reading and practicing colors, we created a colorful penguin ice painting.

This art project took a little prep ahead of time, but it was worth it. I simply filled an ice cub tray about 3/4 full of water. Then I gave each ice cube compartment a squirt of washable tempura paint. I added a popsicle stick to each ice cube and place the tray in the freezer over night. You will need to take them out of the freezer a few minutes before you start painting to let them melt slightly. The melted water becomes your medium so the paint will show up better when the cubes are wet. The final project ended up resembling pastels. So fun!

After we were done painting, we used some pre cut out shapes to build penguins on our masterpieces. I designed a template to use to make these shapes. I traced each shape onto the color paper that I wanted and cut them out ahead of time. You could also have your preschoolers color and cut each shape themselves, depending on ability. You can download this template for FREE at the bottom of this post.

Last but not least, to wrap up our penguin day fun, we played penguin ice rescue. Ahead of time, I froze small plastic penguin toys in yogurt containers filled with water. When it was time, I popped them out on a tray and gave Lillian and her friend a cup of warm water and a plastic dropper. I allotted 15 – 20 minutes for this activity and they played with it for almost an hour!

The girls took their time excavating the penguins from each block of ice, talking about the parts of the penguin as they emerged from the ice. Then they played together with the penguins in their little ice world, setting up a penguin hospital and giving them all a check up. I love how their imagination took this activity a step further and made it so engaging!

I hope you found some inspiration for your preschoolers from this post. If you would like access the resources mentioned above, you can find them by clicking the link below.