BLACK AND WHITE
PENGUIN PARENT DAY

Our class read the book, The Emperor Penguin.  The children learned the male penguin takes on the responsibility of caring for the egg while the female goes out to sea to feed.  The father carries the egg on his feet covered by a special flap to keep it warm.  This is different from other penguins that build nests for their eggs.

 

As a special activity on responsibility, the children built nests at home then came to school with their egg in their nests.  It proved to be a challenging task to take the egg everywhere they went and never leaving them alone.  Otherwise, a dreaded predator of penguin eggs, THE SKUA (Ms. Grogan) might fly down and snatch their eggs. Some children looked for egg-sitters, some never separated from their egg and some eggs cracked causing feelings of loss.

 

To celebrate the success of being a responsible "penguin parent", the children had icebergs (cream cheese) on a cracker with krill (shrimp) and black and white Oreos.