Penguins are so much fun to learn about for a winter theme. These penguin activities were just right for preschool hands-on learning too. Sensory play, books, a little math, and animal habitats all rolled into a fun science activity for toddlers, preschoolers, and even kindergarten. Keep your science activities simple and playful. Plus, grab the free printable activity pack!
Explore Penguins For Preschool Science
Our science experiments are always hands-on and fun, but we don’t always do experiments with a huge WOW factor, but we always try for a fun factor! There are so many concepts to explore!
We have been doing some wintery projects this week, and I thought learning about penguins through hands-on play might be fun!
We have three penguin activities below which are great for preschoolers. Explore penguins through an ice melt activity, simple Math activity and a fun penguin sensory bin. Make sure to grab the printable penguin activity pack at the end!
Learn About Penguins: Penguin Ice Melt
This simple and fun ice melt science experiment taught us about penguins’ adventure. His new favorite experiment is all about ice! All you need to do is freeze your penguins in an ice cube tray and then provide warm water to melt them!
Learn About Penguins: Penguin Measuring Activity
I love to use books to help us learn about different things, and I think it helps Liam especially to see what we are talking about visually! The Penguin Book Birds In Suits by Dr. Mark Norman was inexpensive at a second-hand store. Probably a little advanced for now, but it had great pictures and fun little facts.
One of the facts that we found fun was looking at the height of the different penguins. We used our TOOB penguin figures for this activity. Learning about penguins can include so many different things!
We used a measuring tape and first measured his height. Then we looked through the book and determined the height of each of our penguins and placed them on the appropriate number. Great conversation for words like tallest, shortest, same, even, and more. Yes. He is taller than most Emperor penguins!
Learn About Penguins: Penguin Sensory Play
I admit I didn’t know much about the different penguins, so it was fun to learn something new together. Another learning about penguins activity turned into making sensory habitats!
Learning about penguins also includes where they live. No, they don’t live with polar bears! Bears at the top, penguins at the bottom!
We grouped them into three categories based on our book. The first are Antarctica (very, very cold), Sub Antarctica and cooler temp islands (cold), and South Africa and South America, Galapagos Islands (Warm-very warm).
Create a habitat for each. He got ice for Antarctica and sand for South Africa. We added ocean to each and some rocks and green gems to the two less cold habitats.
We had fun creating them, talking about the penguins living in each, and playing with the sensory materials while learning about them.
Free Printable Penguin Activity Pack
Add to your penguin play and learning time with this free and simple-to-print penguin activities mini-pack to learn more about these fascinating creatures!
More Preschool Science Activities
There are many fun ways to play, learn, and discover with preschoolers!
- Dinosaur Activities
- Space Theme
- Geology Activities
- Plant Activities
- Weather Theme
- Art Projects
- Ocean Theme
- 5 Senses Activities
- Water Activities
I especially love the measuring experiment!
Ha! It was his least favorite activity!
I have to try the Ice Melt Activity with my kids!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!