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| |  | SCI-LIT LINKS QUICKPLAN
PENGUINS, AAAWK!!
(QuickPlan developed by Dr. Ken Mechling, Clarion, Pennsylvania)
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OVERVIEW: Children read the book Antarctica, learn about emperor penguins, and simulate mating calls, egg warming, and huddling.
BOOKLINK: Antarctica by Helen Cowcher, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1990. ISBN 0-374-30368-1
SCIENCE ACTIVITY LINK: There are 3 simulation activities in this lesson. First, the children make emperor head movements and mating calls. Second, the children portray the female penguin lifting an egg off the ice after it is laid. And, third, children move and huddle like males in the freezing Antarctic winter.
OBJECTIVE: Children will describe the characteristics of emperor penguins, their life cycles, and the challenges of their environment and their adaptations to it.
SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes—observing, measuring, inferring, communicating, and model building. Content—characteristics of organisms, life cycles, environments, predator-prey relationships, and adaptations.
NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (3) Life Science, (6) Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
MATERIALS: Book Antarctica, tape measure or meterstick, plastic or wood make-believe emperor penguin eggs.
PROCEDURE:
1. Do a KWL with children focusing on what they know about penguins, particularly emperor penguins.
2. Have the children estimate the size of emperor penguins. Measure to show them their heights. Males are about 4 feet tall and weigh 100 pounds. Females are about 3 feet tall and weigh about 80 pounds.
3. Now read the book Antarctica, calling the children's attention particularly to the emperors. Discuss the book with the children. Have the children note the colors of the emperor, particularly the orange-yellow markings on the sides of their heads. Show them the pictures of egg laying and huddling.
4. During the early months of the Antarctic winter (late spring and early summer in the Northern Hemisphere), male and female emperor penguins court. To attract a mate, both females and males swing their heads from side to side to display the yellow and orange patches on the sides of their heads. Then, with heads against their chests, they trumpet loudly and melodiously. Have the children pretend that they are emperors courting by having them swing their heads from side to side, then put their heads against their chests calling out a loud "aaaaaaaaaawkkk."
5. Two months after mating, each female lays one cream-colored egg ( about twice the size of a chicken egg), which she lays on the ice, lifts onto her feet, and covers with a flap of belly skin and feathers. Shortly after laying, the females turn the job of incubating the eggs over to the males. The female emperors then leave to feed in the sea. Have the children simulate this with a make-believe penguin egg. Have them lift the egg off the floor and onto their feet without using their hands. You may wish to have the children try waddling with the egg on their feet or transferring the egg to another child (the male penguin) without having it roll off onto the ice.
6. The father penguins keep the eggs warm for two months of near continuous darkness when temperatures may drop to –110 F and winds roar across the ice at speeds up to 180 mph. Often, thousands of males crowd together. Each penguin takes his turn standing in the center of the huddle, the warmest spot. Have the children simulate a huddle. Begin by having them line up in a column, waddle after you, follow-the-leader style, leading them into a tight circle that take them first into the circle's center, then to the circle's outside, then into the center again—waddling all the time. Discuss with the children the advantages being in the center of the huddle.
7. Two months after the eggs are laid, they begin to hatch. At this time, each female penguin returns from the sea with her crop (a special stomach used to hold food) full of fish and squid to feed her young. This is a good time to read poems from Antarctic Antics, particularly the one titled, " I Am Looking for My Mother."
8. At times during these activities you may wish to discuss with the children the food penguins eat (fish, squid, and tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill), their swimming (excellent swimmers that can dive to 900 feet and stay underwater for 20 minutes, their enemies or predators ( orcas or killer whales and leopard seals), and their life spans (about 30 years).
RELATED BOOKS:
The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins, Candlewick Press, 1999. ISBN 0-7636-0557-3
Antarctica Antics by Judy Sierra, Gulliver Books Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998. ISBN 0-15-201006-8
Daddy, would You Love Me If…? by Carla Dijs, Little Simon Merchandise, 1996. ISBN 0-689-80812-7
Penguins by Gallimard Jeunesse and Rene Mettler, Cartwheel Books, 1995. ISBN 0-590-73877-1
Solo by Paul Geraghty, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1995. ISBN 0-517-70908-2
The Emperor Penguin's New Clothes by Janet Pearlman, Puffin Books, 1994. ISBN 0-14-055731-8
The Penguin Family Book by Lauritz Somme and Sybille Kalas, North-South Books, 1988.ISBN 1-55858-379-3
Penguins by Judith Hodge, Barron's, 1999. ISBN 0-7641-1216-3
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