Plenty Of Penguins

On Thursday I was given the coal in my stocking an early Christmas present. When I return from Christmas Break, the dreaded fun penguin unit is waiting for me. It has been placed by the trash can in a safe place. You say the "p word" to any 1st grade teacher in my district and it won't be pretty. I love penguins just not the unit that is supposed to teach math but really teaches....hmmmmm, after 12 years I have still not figured that one out. Fine motor cutting skills? Yes! We learn about different penguins and I like that but then our math assessments for this unit are based on reading and sorting penguin facts learned from a poem that is about 40 lines long and WAY to long for a 1st grader to read at this time of the year. Um, where are the assessments for place value, problem solving, graphing, and oh, any of the other TEKS I am supposedly teaching with this unit??!!!????

So to help my kiddos actually learn something, I throw away and recycle many activities send home with my kiddos many of the games that take about 3 hours to cut out per kiddo. Did I mention this unit is about 6 reams of paper tall??!!!???

Okay, I could rant and complain discuss more about the penguin unit but this is my break and I do want to relax and not think about those reams of paper already collecting dust in my room.

Here are some penguin math games I hope you can use! =)

Penguin Fact Families

Penguin Addition Cover-Up

Another Penguin Cover-Up

I hope these help you out with some math stations when you return from your Christmas Break. Heart notes make me smile so I would appreciate you leaving one if you grab these activities.

A Sunday night is so much sweeter knowing I can stay in my pajamas for a LONG time tomorrow. =)