Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Emperor's Egg

Today we read The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins.  Before we read, we listed some things we knew/thought we knew about penguins:

What we know about penguins:
  • they eat fish
  • macaroni penguins have yellow on their heads
  • penguins lay eggs
  • penguins can swim
  • they live in Antartica
  • penguins have to keep their eggs warm
  • they live at the north pole
As we read, we kept track of new information we learned:
  • when the chick is big enough, the parents leave it alone and go fishing
  • when baby penguins are 4 months old, they can look after themselves boy Emperor penguins are about 4 feet tall and females are smaller
  • Emperor penguins are the biggest in the world
  • Emperor penguins eat squid, fish, krill
  • female penguins lay eggs
  • female penguins spend most of the winter in the water, eating a lot
  • the father has to stay with the egg
  • he has to make sure the egg stays warm or else the chick will die
  • they put the egg on their feet and tuck it under their tummy
    they sit on their egg for two months until it hatches
  • she lays the egg in May or June, which is the start of winter in Antarctica 
  • the father penguin doesn't get anything to eat while he's egg-sitting, that's like us not eating breakfast or lunch or dinner or snacks
  • they huddle to stay warm
    they have fat under their skin to keep warm
  • if a spot is very slippery, penguins slide on their tummies but they are careful not to bump into each other because they still have the eggs with them
  • when the dad penguin goes sliding, sometimes the egg rolls out and breaks
  • one day the egg will crack open 
  • when the baby chick hatches, the Dad penguins has 2 jobs: keep it warm and feed it
    a penguin chick is very small
  • the dad has a pouch to milky stuff to feed the baby until the mom comes home
  • each penguin has their own sound
  • the chick can make a whistling sound
  • the mom penguin spits food into the baby's mouth and it looks yucky but the baby needs it 
I was very impressed with the many facts that students summarized - it forms quite an impressive list!  


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