Tacky the Penguin Activities and Lesson Ideas with a Free File.
This read-aloud is SO FUN! See examples of kindergarten and first-grade responses in this blog post for the reading comprehension strategies: Prediction, Retelling, Inferring, Comparing, and Opinion Writing. Download the lesson plan template and add your own ideas!
Tacky the Penguin Activities: Read Aloud
Tacky the Penguin was one of the first reading comprehension activities we made when we started our Engaging Readers back in 2013.
Reading Comprehension: Making Predictions with Tacky the Penguin
We start the week by working on making predictions. Kindergarten teachers will find that student are MORE than capable of making their meaning known through pictures!
I can not understate how important partner work is. Students need lots of opportunities to process language and discuss their thinking. As a teacher, you can not possibly provide an opportunity for each student to express their thinking to YOU directly. However, turning to their partner and talking is purposeful. It is essential.
During this time of the day, we are not concerned with the letter sound association (transcription) that students are doing. We know we have lots of instructional time dedicated to encoding and decoding words. We have explicit lessons that with strengthen those skills.
During our read aloud time, our main focus is to improve students’ listening comprehension (which is a launching ground for reading comprehension), vocabulary development, and oral language. Giving students the chance to make their meaning known through their illustrations work perfectly. AND Tacky they Penguin BEGS to be discussed!
Tacky the Penguin Retelling Activities
Like I said, Tacky the Penguin BEGS to be discussed. This group retelling activity is such a great support for their oral language development.
Once the whole group activity is complete, these kindergarten students partner up again to orally practice retelling the story.
Another retelling example shows how this teacher coupled the retelling with the craft activity. Tacky looks pretty dapper, don’t you think?
Remember, the oral retelling of a story is such an important step, but it is often skipped. If you want your students to be proficient with retelling a story, they must have ample practice. My class loved this part and would fuss if we cut it short.
Digital Retelling
This is what the digital retelling looks like. Digital retelling PowerPoints were added to the Engaging Readers this year!
Students also worked on comparing, inferring, and opinion writing.
You can see the classroom display was a sight to behold!
You can find these reading comprehension lessons, response pages, and retelling activities by clicking:
Tacky the Penguin Video
This is my favorite version of the video. If you don’t follow StoryTime at Awnie’s House on YouTube, you are going to want to for sure! By the time we get to the end of the week, the students enjoy hearing another person’s voice (honestly… I the breather.) But seriously, hearing another person’s example of fluency and intonation is powerful.
Tacky the Penguin: Vocabulary Activity
Students also work on looking closely at a few of the vocabulary words that are included in the book.
Tacky the Penguin Sentence Study Activity
Examining and correcting sentences is also part of our book activities.
You can find these reading comprehension lessons, response pages, and retelling activities by clicking:
Tacky the Penguin Activities & Lesson Plans
You may download these lesson plans for kindergarten PDF or an editable template. I have used Hello Literacy Fonts (which are free for non-commercial use). You may want to download her fonts and install them on your computer first. This way the formatting will not be off. Naturally, you can change the fonts if you prefer.
- Do you need help with editing these visual lesson plans? Click: Tech Support for Teachers
- Download these plans by clicking HERE or on the image below.
Are you looking for more Winter Read Aloud Activities?
I have linked a few below:
- Sneezy the Snowman Lesson Ideas (Free file too)
- The Mitten Reading Comprehension FUN! (FREE unit)
- Snowmen at Night Lesson Plans (Free Activity TOO!)
- The Snowy Day Activites and Lesson Plans for Kindergarten & First Grade (Free File)
- Martin’s Big Words
Have a great week and be sure to scroll to the bottom for your free math activity!
Do you love Tacky as much as we do?
You can find another Tacky the Penguin set of activities in the following blog post:
Free Math Center Activity
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