Paper Bag Penguin

Materials: Black construction paper, orange construction paper, paper bag, glue stick, scissors, google eyes or paper hole reinforcers, stapler, pencil, old paper or tissue

To make the head of the penguin draw a halve oval on a piece of black paper.  Depending on the ability of the child you can cut out all the pieces or you can just trace them and let them cut them out.

The head should be as wide as the top of the paper bag.

Next, using the paper bag as a measure cut out a long pointy U-shape.  This will become the penguin's flippers.

Cut out two webbed feet from black construction paper.

Cut out an orange triangle "beak" from orange construction paper.

Use old paper to stuff the paper bag. I used some newsprint that came with a package I ordered.  But you may use anything that is somewhat soft like crumbled newspaper or even cotton filling.

I crumble my newsprint. (Children love crumbling paper, definitely let them do this)

Stuff the bag half way.  If you want to use the bag to fill with treats, then instead of paper fill it with the treats at this time.

Staple bag closed.

To make the penguin's face glue on the triangle beak,

Followed by the googly eyes.

Glue the penguins feet to the bottom of the bag.

Glue the flippers on the top of the bag

Glue the penguin's head at the top of the bag, over the flippers.

 Now you have a wobbly penguin pal!

You may use him to play with, decoration, or as a gift bag for a fancy winter treat!

Teddy Bear Toast

Bears love honey, and your little ones will too! In this cooking activity, adults help children make bear-shaped toast topped with honey-butter and cinnamon sugar! Yum!

 Materials:  Toaster, sliced bread, whipped butter, honey, cinnamon, sugar, teddy bear cookie cutter, bowl, spoons, butter knives.

 Before you start this activity with the children, prepare the honey-butter and cinnamon-sugar so that it is ready for children to use.  To make the honey butter, simply mix equal parts butter and honey.

 To make the cinnamon-sugar, simply combine cinnamon and sugar.  You can either combine them in a small bowl and children can sprinkle it over their toast with their fingers or you can put the mixture into a spice jar and they can shake it over their toast.

 Children may put their slice of bread into the toaster. Children should always be supervised while using the toaster. This would also be a good time to talk about hot surfaces; which parts of the toaster could be touched and which should not because you may get burned.

 When the toast is ready, children may use the cookie cutter to cut into the bread. 

 Spread the honey-butter onto the toast.

 Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on top.

Enjoy!

Feed the Penguin

 Practice color recognition with this penguin-themed idea! Make a penguin out of a box and practice various concepts while playing this game with your youngsters.

                                 
 Materials:  Medium size box, glue, brush, scissors, box cutter, black construction paper, white construction paper, various colors of construction paper, glue stick, white crayon, pencil.

 We will be turning the box into a penguin.  I happened to have a box that has a large slit in it already.  If your box does not have a slit, use a box cutter to carve a slit into the box which will become the penguin's mouth.  If you are cutting out your own mouth, you can make it a bit smaller than the size of hole in my box.

 Next we will be covering that front side of the box with black construction paper.  You can also do the next few steps by painting a penguin onto the box, but I did not have paint so I used construction paper instead.

 Squeeze some glue onto the box and spread all around using a brush.

 Cover the front side of the box with black construction paper, leaving the slit uncovered.

 It should look something like this.  No, it is not perfect and that is okay.  Unless I am planning on using something I have made over and over again, I don't worry about spending extra time on making it look perfect.  The kids don't notice the imperfections and  frankly, I don't have the time to make it look perfect.  If it serves it's purpose and somewhat looks like what your trying to represent, then its fine.

 Next, draw a beak onto yellow construction paper.  I just freehand it...remember, it does not have to be perfect.

 Cut out the top and bottom beak.

 Glue them over the opening on the box using a glue stick.

 Cut out a half circle and glue centered on the bottom of the box.  The white half circle represents the penguins tummy.

 Cut out two small circles and glue them toward the top of the box to represent eyes.

Cut out pupils out of black construction paper. Now he is ready to eat.

 Draw a fish onto the colors of construction paper that you would like your children to review.

 I drew this fish freehand, but I'm sure you can find a stencil online if you feel uncomfortable drawing it on your own.

 A set of color fish.

 You may also label some with shapes, numbers, or letters that you want to review.  If you decide to label your fish, I would recommend using the same color fish so that the child can focus on the symbol.

 Encourage child/ren to verbalize the color/letter/number/shape before they feed it to the penguin.

If you plan on saving this game to use again and again, you can cover the front of the penguin with contact paper and glue the fish onto cardstock or something similar, cut out, and laminate.