Facts

• There are 17 different species of penguins
• The smallest penguin is “Little Blue, or Little Fairy”
• The largest penguin is the Emperor penguin
• Most penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere – Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina
• Penguins eat a variety of fish and other small sea creatures
• Penguins can’t fly Penguins waddle as they walk

Here are 2 fun penguin videos

• Funniest penguin videos

• All about penguins

Read Aloud Tacky the Penguin, read by Sarah is attached

Activities

Listen to the read aloud, Tacky the Penguin, then in your journal you can use one of any of these prompts to draw and write about

• If you were Tacky what silly things would you do at home?
• Tacky has 5 companions with different names, can you draw 5 penguins and give them each an interesting name?

Penguin words and pictures if you want to copy and draw them. Maybe you have some chalk and you can draw them outside.

Penguin Words 1, Penguin Words 2

Here is the New England Aquarium Webcam on the African penguins who live there. There is also a penguin bingo card. You can watch the video cam and then see if you can look at your bingo card and find some of the penguins behaviors – like bowing, preening, etc.

Bingo Card.pdf

Can you make your own penguin using legos, recyclable materials, etc.

Butterfly Movie

Butterfly Movie 2

Things To Do

• You can continue to document the butterflies in your butterfly observational journal or a journal entry.
• Some writing prompts:
  • Did the butterflies looks like you would have expected?
  • What do you think of the colors on the wings?
  • Have you seen any butterflies in your yard or neighborhood recently?
• Check out this link to the butterfly cam at the San Diego Zoo! Which butterfly was your favorite? Have you ever visited a butterfly zoo or farm before? There are a lot of butterflies in one space!
• Draw your own butterfly or use recycled materials to create a 3D version of a butterfly that you can hang in your house!

Veterinarians, which we often call “vets,” are animal doctors. Some vets work with large farm animals, some work with wild animals, and some work with household animals (pets!) Vets go to a lot of school to learn how to take care of animals. In school, they learn how to take care of all animals but usually choose their favorite to work with when they are done.

Have you ever been to the vet’s office before? I have! Pinto Bean does not like going. She meows in the car the whole time, and tried to run and hide when I let her out of her carrier in the office. They give her treats, though. Which makes her feel better. Do you like going to the doctor? Is there anything there that makes you feel better or helps you stay calm?

Here is a video about being a veterinarian!

Activity ideas!

• Play vet with your lovies or animal toys! If you have a play doctor kit, you can use that. If not, create your own kit out of things around the house! They use nail clippers, a thermometer, a stethoscope, and a scale a lot when I take Pinto. (attached a vet report)
• Journal idea: What kind of veterinarian would you want to be? Your options are care for pets, for wild animals, or for farm animals.
• Practice writing words about veterinarians! Some of them are long!

Resources

• Vet Report
• Vet Words

Gorillas are such interesting animals. I am sure that many of you have seen them when visiting a zoo or read books about them. Today we are going to learn all about gorillas, watch some great videos, listen to 2 books and learn all about KOKO the gorilla who could use sign language to communicate with humans.

Gorilla Facts

Where do Gorillas live?

Gorillas live in Central Africa. There are two main species of gorilla, the Eastern Gorilla and the Western Gorilla. The Western Gorilla lives in Western Africa in countries such as Cameroon, the Congo, the Central African Republic, and Gabon. The Eastern Gorilla lives in Eastern African countries such as Uganda and Rwanda. Gorillas live in a range of habitats from swamps to forests. There are lowland gorillas which live in bamboo forests, swamps and lowland forests. There are also mountain gorillas which live in the mountains.

What do they eat?

Gorillas are mostly herbivores and eat plants. The plants they eat include leaves, stems pith, fruit, and bamboo. Sometimes they will eat insects, especially ants. A full grown adult male will eat around 50 pounds of food in a day.

What do they look like?

Gorillas have long arms, even longer than their legs! They use their long arms to “knuckle-walk”. This is where they use the knuckles on their hands to walk on all fours. They are mostly covered with brown hair. Gorillas from different areas may have different colored hair. For example, the western gorilla has the lightest hair and the mountain gorilla has the darkest. The western lowland gorilla can also have grayish hair and red colored forehead. When male gorillas get older their hair turns white on their back. These older males are called Silverback gorillas.

Fun Facts About Gorillas

• Gorillas have hands and feet like humans including opposable thumbs and big toes.
• Some gorillas in captivity have learned to use sign language to communicate with humans.
• Gorillas live in small groups called troops or bands. In each troop there is one dominant male Silverback, some female gorillas, and their offspring.
• Gorillas live around 35 years. They can live longer, up to 50 years, in captivity.
• They sleep at night in nests.
• Baby gorillas will stay in their mother’s nests until they are around 2 ½ years old. Baby gorillas are called ‘Infants’ just like us.
• Gorillas are generally calm and passive animals, however, the Silverback will defend his troop if he feels threatened.

Resources

• Gorilla Words
• Gorilla Activities

Koko the Gorilla

Read about Koko the Gorilla here.

Koko wants a baby

Meet Koko’s new kittens

Koko meets Mr. Rodgers and blows out birthday candles

Koko plays the electronic keyboard

Koko plays with a yellow balloon

Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with Juila:

Some Fun Games:

• Roll a dice alphabet game: Roll the dice, then sound out one letter from under the number you rolled. Once you’ve sounded out the letter you can color that box. Continue rolling until you have sounded out and colored all of the letters.
• Use the attached uppercase and lowercase letters to help practice your letter recognition. Cut each lowercase letter out and use your uppercase letter sheet as a game board. See if you can match all of the lowercase letters to the uppercase letters and practice the sound of each letter as you match them up.
• Play a game of memory using the uppercase and lowercase letter sheets. Cut out both sets of letters, mix them up, and put them on the floor or a table letter side down. Flip over only two cards at a time and see if the letters match. If they match you can take those cards out of the game, if they don’t match you have to flip them over and put them back in their spot. Keep flipping over two cards at a time until you get all of the uppercase and lowercase letter matches. Use your memory to help you remember where certain letters are!
• Go on an outdoor letter hunt! See if you can find objects that start with each letter of the alphabet while outside on a walk or while playing in your yard. Here is an example. G for GRASS, can you find more? You can use the uppercase or lowercase letter sheet to help you keep track of the letters you find. When you find an object that starts with a letter, color in or cross off that letter so you know it’s done!
• Downloads
  • Roll and Color Alphabet Sounds
  • Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

Watch this fun singing video to help learn about the sounds that each letter makes: 

Sing along to this catchy ABC song:

• You can listen to a story read by Julia called Sneakers, the Seaside Cat and find out what adventures Sneakers has while at the beach.

• Practice some writing with beach word cards

• If you have sand at home you can pretend to be at the beach! Either inside or outside, place your sand in a big bin or container and add some materials such as: small containers, bucket, shovel, scoops, sea shells, plastic fish, rocks or small pebbles you find in your yard. Then you can work on making sand castles!
• Set up a beach scene in your house! Dig out a beach towel, sunglasses, maybe a beach chair and bring a book to relax with at the beach! You could even put on your swimming suit and goggles to pretend to swim!
• Write a journal entry of what you like to do at the beach. You can draw and write about who you like to go to the beach with and what activities you like to do.

• Check out the videos of a puppy playing with a cool ghost crab at the beach and some really cool, really BIG sand sculptures!

Posted by Sara – Orange Room

A time capsule or memory box is a container or special box that holds present day items, such as photos, newspapers, letters, pictures and more. It’s typically hidden away for your future. So in a few years you can open it back up and see what items you put in it. This is perfect as a gift to yourself for the future.

Would you like to make your own time capsule or memory box? Maybe you can share one with a sibling!

Here is a 5 minute video clip of Peppa Pig explaining the time capsule.

Many people will make a hole in their garden and place their time capsule or memory box deep in the hole and then cover it up. But there are many places you can store it – the basement, garage, shed, attic etc.

What is special about your own time capsule, is that you can make it however you like and put whatever items you want to. You probably wouldn’t want to put in a special toy, but you can always take photos of your favorite things and put those in the box.

The first thing that you need to do is to find a special container or box, it will need some kind of lid or cover. You can use stickers, markers, craft materials etc to decorate your box. Maybe you can write your name on the outside of the box.

Now it is time to think about items that you want to put in your box. I have attached a list of some time capsule ideas, but you can use whatever you feel is important and special to you.
You can take as much time as you need to find the items you want to put in.

Once you have decorated your container and put all of your items in, it is now time to think about where you want to put your time capsule. Maybe you can ask a family member to help you find a place to put it. Try and find a hidden place where it can stay for many years!

Finally a short book – all about yourself. I have attached a book outline with questions and answers, but you can make your own book and write about whatever you like.

• Memory Box/Time Capsule Ideas
• Words
• Containers
• “All About Me”

Transferring Our Lima Bean to Soil:

Turtle!

I also included some pictures and a short video of a baby turtle my Mom and Dad saw in their yard in Connecticut this weekend! They live right by a very big stream and noticed this tiny turtle trying to cross their driveway. This turtle has a red belly and some red spots on the side of its shell – I think it may be a painted turtle!