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Hands-On Penguin Activities for Kindergarten

Are you looking for an engaging way to help your students practice literacy and math skills?  These penguin activities for kindergarten are interactive, engaging, and educational.  You can use these fun penguin activity ideas to plan a successful thematic unit this winter!

Penguin activities for kindergarten

Penguin Literacy Activities for Kindergarten

CVC Words

Your students will have fun practicing CVC word building with this penguin-themed phonics activity! They will use fish letters to make a CVC word that matches each picture. 

Using fish cards to build CVC words

All About Penguins

Before learning all about penguins, it’s a good idea to have students write about what they know and what they wonder about penguins.  Then, after reading non-fiction books about penguins, you can discuss what you have learned about penguins.  This “Can, Have, Are” chart is a great way for students to organize this information!

Penguin schema rksheet
Penguin Can, Have, Are worksheet

As your class learns about penguins, there will definitely be new vocabulary! Students can organize this new knowledge in their own penguin vocabulary books.  This printable book has space for the word, definition, and a drawing to help students remember the penguin vocabulary.

Cover of penguin vocabulary book
Penguin vocabulary book page

Tacky the Penguin Story Elements

Reading fictional penguin books are a great way to practice story elements!  You can read “Tacky the Penguin” with your class and then have students create a story elements mini reader. 

All about Tacky the Penguin printable book cover
The settings page of a printable story elements book

Character Traits

Reading a book about a unique character like Tacky is a great way to discuss character traits!  After discussing Tacky’s character traits together as a class, students can complete a graphic organizer.  

Tacky the Penguin character trait graphic organizer

Then they can create their own Tacky the Penguin craft!  For this writing craftivity, students will write about Tacky’s character traits, then create a colorful shirt to create a lift-the-flap craftivity. 

A Tacky the Penguin craft
Tacky the penguin writing craftivity

Penguin Research Book

Another fun and educational penguin project for kindergarten is a penguin research book!  This project includes a fun penguin craft for the cover and a table of contents.

All About Penguins book cover page
Table of contents of a penguin research book

Students will complete a variety of interactive pages to complete their research book.

Penguin facts page of a research book
Penguin labeling activity

It’s a great way for students to share with their families what they have learned about penguins.

Food page of a penguin research book
Penguin Play page of a penguin research book

Penguin Facts Craft

Another way for students to share about what they have learned about penguins is with this adorable standing penguin craft!  Students will write about different penguin facts, then attach them to a 3D penguin craft.  These are so fun to display in the classroom! 

A completed 3D penguin craft
Lifting the cover of a penguin fact book craftivity

Compare and Contrast

After reading about both real and fictional penguins, your students can practice comparing and contrasting the two!  Students can cut and paste different facts onto a Venn diagram, based on whether each fact applies to real penguins, Tacky the penguin, or both.

Penguin comparison Venn diagram

Penguin Math Activities for Kindergarten

Interactive Penguin Subtraction Activities

There are several interactive ways to help students visualize the process of taking away from the total in order to subtract.  Students can use a subtraction mat, penguin cup, and goldfish crackers to model subtraction. 

Subtraction activity with goldfish crackers
Adding fish cards to bag with penguin

Students can also use a penguin bag to take away fish as they model subtraction equations.  After acting out the subtraction equation with fish cards, they can write the answer below the corresponding flap.

Penguin Subtraction Practice

There are even more engaging ways to practice subtraction with penguins! Students can practice solving subtraction equations with a penguin-themed worksheet.  They can also sort subtraction equations by placing each fish card with the correct penguin.

A penguin themed subtraction worksheet
Sorting yellow subtraction cards to the correct penguin

You can also get your students up and moving with subtraction around the room!  Place penguin cards around the classroom and have students find them. When they find a card, students will write and solve the subtraction equation on a recording sheet. 

Penguin subtraction card and recording sheet for subtract around the room

Cross Out Subtraction

Teaching students how to cross out objects to model subtraction will help them move transition from using concrete objects for subtraction practice. You can practice this together as a class using cross out subtraction mats and recording sheets.

Cross out subtraction dry erase mat
Subtraction mat and worksheet

Students can then practice cross out subtraction using penguin and fish-themed printable worksheets.

A cross out subtraction worksheet
Draw and cross out subtraction worksheet

Finally, students can create subtraction mini books to practice cross out subtraction equations as well as story problems.

Cross out subtraction mini reader
A word problem in a subtraction mini reader

Number Line Subtraction

Learning how to read and use a number line is an important skill that students will use to understand many math concepts in the future.  Practicing subtraction with a number line is a great skill to include in your penguin unit!  

A number line mat with space to write a number
A number line mat with space to write a subtraction problem

You can have students model subtraction with you as they have Tacky the Penguin hop backwards on a number line. After practicing this skill on dry erase mats, students can then apply their knowledge to practice worksheets with number lines.

Penguin subtraction number line worksheet with subtraction equations
Number line worksheet with space to write number sentences
Number line subtraction worksheet

Subtraction Story Problems

Help your students deepen their understanding of subtraction with story problems!  They can illustrate and solve a variety of penguin story problems in their own subtraction book. 

Pages of a penguin subtraction book
A subtraction word problem penguin craft

Your students will also love to create their own subtraction story problem and craft!  These penguin math crafts look great on a bulletin board!

Penguin Subtraction Game

Students also love to practice subtraction with games!  This double spinner activity has students spin the first number and then subtract the second number that they spin. After figuring out the answer, students will color in the corresponding fish on their recording sheet.  They will keep playing until they have colored in all of their fish! Students can also write and solve the equations on a recording sheet.

Double spinner subtraction with fish coloring sheet
A double spinner subtraction game and recording sheet

Goldfish Sort and Graph

We all know how much kindergarteners love math activities that include a snack!  Give each student a small cup full of colored goldfish crackers. They will use a mat to sort the goldfish by color and then graph their results. There is also a worksheet where students can interpret and use their data in different ways.

Sorting goldfish by color
A goldfish sorting activity with graphing worksheet

Printable Penguin Activities for Kindergarten

All of the activities pictured above (and more!) can be found in my printable bundle of Penguin Activities for Kindergarten.  In this resource, you’ll find a variety of literacy and math activities with a fun penguin theme! Plus, this bundle includes a unit-at-a-glance document that outlines how you can put together these hands-on activities for a two-week penguin unit.

If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this resource, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on TPT.

A variety of penguin math and ELA activities
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Save These Kindergarten Penguin Activities

If you’d like to use these hands-on activities for your next penguin thematic unit, be sure to save this post! Add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest so you can quickly find these ideas when you’re looking for penguin activities for kindergarten.

Penguin activities for kindergarten