Do you know JiJi? And Other Penguin Fun!

Do you know JiJi?  

If you know JiJi, then your kids do ST Math too.  Our district adopted the ST Math program for K-5 this year, and we began using it in late September.  I was intrigued after our training and excited to implement it in my classroom.  I have been amazed by the growth in my students using this program.  ST Math uses spatial temporal reasoning to teach mathematics and problem solving.  If you want more information on the program you can visit the Mind Institute's website.

This week one of my students competed the Kindergarten syllabus!  He has achieved mastery in 100% of the kindergarten skills!  He was the first student in our building to complete his grade level syllabus!  Well, since we were studying penguins this week, it was the perfect time to celebrate his accomplishment and our class progress!  

We did a little fishing and problem solving in our math journals!

Students dipped a pretzel stick in peanut butter (no peanut allergies here) and then dipped it in goldfish to see how many they could catch.  They recorded it in their math journals, went fishing again and recorded a number sentence with the total number of fish they caught.

After our fishing, we made JiJi hats...

so that we could do the penguin dance...

They loved the penguin dance, so we decided that it would become our new celebration song whenever someone hit a milestone in JiJi!

And finally we made a penguin snack.

      

(Oreo cookie, twisted apart, one side broken in half - mini chocolate chips for the eyes - orange gummy bear cut in half for the webbed feet - about 1/3 of a yellow gummy bear for the beak)

The kids had a great time celebrating our success with JiJi and it was the perfect conclusion to our week!

Pebble Go and other Digital Resources for Penguins

I absolutely love Pebble nonfiction books! They have fabulous nonfiction books that are perfect for K-1 readers.  They are available for many of the topics covered in the primary grades.  These are just a few that our school library has on penguins.  

Pebble Go is a subscription service, but our district is considering purchasing a subscription so I have access to a trial login.  If you don't already have Pebble Go at your school, you should check with your local public library.  There are lots of public libraries that have subscriptions.  


In fact, public libraries can be an amazing resource for subscription services.  TumbleBooks is available through my public library.


We will be using several Pebble Go digital books on penguins in the coming weeks. 

Pebble Go is a subscription service, but our district is considering purchasing a subscription so I have access to a trial login.  If you don't already have Pebble Go at your school, you should check with your local library.  There are lots of public libraries that have subscriptions.  In fact, public libraries can be an amazing resource for subscription services.  TumbleBooks is available through my public library.


Here are some free digital resources on penguins:

Emperor Penguins on National Geographic Kids

Adelie Penguins on National Geographic Kids

A Penguin Chick's Life on Scholastic Let's Find Out

California Academy of Sciences Live Penguin Cam

Monterey Bay Aquarium Splash Zone Penguin Cam

Digital Book from We Give Books

And who doesn't love a little Harry Kindergarten?

These are subscription services, but you can sign up for a free trial if you are interested:

Penguins on Brain Pop (free trial is only 5 days,

 so don't sign up until your ready to use it!)

A Penguin Story on TumbleBooks (not sure how long the free trial lasts, 

but check with your public library to see if they have a subscription)

And of course there is a wealth of streaming resources on Discovery Education!

I hope you find something that you can use in your classroom!  I would love to hear what digital resources  you use in your classroom.