Penguin Play

Our first playdate of 2015 followed a winter snow theme. The boys and I missed attending that one because they were sick. But, we heard that our friends had a great time eating cheese stick snowmen, having an indoor snowball fight with socks, and making these paper plate snowmen:

Thankfully, Jaden and Cody were feeling better by the time our second January playdate rolled around. This one was penguin-themed. Even our two youngest playgroup members, Hannah and Wes, got into the theme. Aren't these two just adorable? :)

Samie slaved over these super cute penguin snacks, made with string cheese, olives, and carrots. Talk about impressive! :)

Here are the seven older kiddos, waiting patiently for snacktime.

Kenzie, Landon, Abbie, Micah, Ryder, Jaden, Cody

During snacktime, we watched a very brief video on YouTube which gave some fun facts about penguins. Then, we moved on to a few activities. All the kids listened and participated SO well for this first little game! We discussed what "waddling like a penguin" means and practiced some waddling.

Then, we all waddled along to this little tune: 

(sung to Twinkle Twinkle)

Penguins, penguins, having fun; Waddling in the winter sun.

Waddling fast and waddling slow; Waddling to and waddling fro;

Penguins, Penguins oh-so-nice...

We reeeally exaggerated the slow and fast waddling!

The song ended with, "They sit down upon some ice!" After hearing this line, the kids each had to find an ice cube (a white square of paper) to sit upon. I think we sang this song 3 or 4 times. It was quite a hit!

After the waddling song, the kids worked together to carry cotton ball "ice cubes" over to the couch, using only a plastic spoon. Somewhat surprisingly, they could actually all carry out this activity really well! I figured the game would be better as a cooperative activity, rather than a relay race, like I had seen on Pinterest. The kids did it fairly quickly and seemed to enjoy working together.

Our last game was Penguin I Spy. The kids sat down in groups of 2 with a stack of penguin picture cards. One of the adults would say something like, "I spy a penguin holding a star (or ice skating, or wearing a purple hat)," and the kids would find the appropriate cards. 

Recently, Jaden and Cody have been really into matching games at home, so they overall seemed to like this one. When we were done, each family kept a set of the penguin cards so they could play their own matching game at home.

After all these activities, the kids were ready for a bit of free play. Finally, though, our playdate ended with craft time. Ruth planned a very cute craft that used the kids' handprints as the penguin's wings.  

The kids, of course, were most excited about using the glue sticks!

And here's our group... holding their completed penguins.

"We love penguins!" :)