Kindergarteners Produce Penguin Play

Kindergarteners waddled on stage dressed as penguins roaming the South Pole. They had spent the last four weeks in a deep dive, learning everything they could about the Antarctic bird. The children then transformed that knowledge into their very own play which they performed in front of their families.
“I asked them to solve a penguin problem,” said Early Childhood music teacher Diane Scanlon. In the play, a captain of a ship plots to capture the penguins, but through good communication the penguins are able to talk the captain and his crewmates to join their pod. The play also tackles the differences and similarities within the penguin species – emperor, chinstrap and fairy, and the children conclude, “We are one big penguin family.”
 
The children made all the props and scenery themselves, including an almost life-size paper mâché penguin. With the help of their teachers, they wrote poems that they put to music. Most importantly, they had to listen to each other. “In addition to storytelling and creativity, the experience was so much about teamwork,” says Ms. Scanlon. 
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