Give this cute “Did you Ever See a Penguin?” action rhyme a try to get your preschooler up and moving! This rhyme is perfect for learning letter P, preschool penguin theme, and adding into your cold weather/winter themes. This penguin action rhyme is to the tune of “Did You Ever See a Lassie?” and has 3 verses, but you can pick and choose to do just the first one or all three. Pair this rhyme with some Penguin Stories!
Did You Ever See a Penguin?
(action = waddle)
Did you ever see a penguin? A penguin? A penguin?
Did you ever see a penguin, waddle this way and that?
Waddle this way and that way.
Waddle this way and that way.
Did you ever see a penguin, waddle this way and that?
(action = slide)
Did you ever see a penguin? A penguin? A penguin?
Did you ever see a penguin, slide this way and that?
Slide this way and that way.
Slide this way and that way.
Did you ever see a penguin, slide this way and that?
(action = swim)
Did you ever see a penguin? A penguin? A penguin?
Did you ever see a penguin, swim this way and that?
Swim this way and that way.
Swim this way and that way.
Did you ever see a penguin, swim this way and that?
(c) Imaginations Running Wild
Check out my Rhymes Page for more fun finger and action rhymes, as well as other cute little poems for preschoolers!
This book is a cute penguin version of the Five Little Monkeys. Preschoolers will love the rhyming, sing-songy story and vibrant illustrations. One by one, the little penguins get hurt and their mama has to call the doctor. Eventually no one is having any fun at all, until mama comes up with a new plan!
Little Penguin eats some chili and gets the hiccups! Nothing is making them go away. Maybe you can help scare the hiccups out of Little Penguin? Get ready for a humorous interactive story. Kids will like the cute little penguin, yelling “boo,” and the surprise friend at the end!
My son picked this one at our library and he fell in love with this sweet story! The penguin finds a pinecone and they two become friends. Penguin has so much fun playing with pinecone, but Pinecone is too cold to remain in the snow. Grandpa tells Penguin that pinecones belong in the forest, so Penguin packs up his sled and they set off on a journey to return the pinecone to its forest home. Once in the forest, Penguin makes a nice bed for pinecone. Before leaving, Penguin takes a bunch of rocks and forms them in a heart shape around Pinecone. While it is sad to leave Pinecone behind, Penguin knows he is doing what’s best for his friend. Sometime later, Penguin returns to the forest to visit his friend only to discover that Pinecone is now a tree. Even though Pinecone looks different, the two resume their friendship! Preschoolers will love this ending.
Friends Romeo and Lou build a rocket out of snow that magically comes to life and flies them far away from home! They land in a city and mistake the new people, animals, and things that discover for more familiar home creatures: penguins, seals, walruses, and fish! The mistaken identities will make kids laugh as the two friends make their way through the city in search of a new rocket ship to take them home. When they are beginning to lose hope, Romeo and Lou board a cargo ship and make a rocket out of cardboard boxes and set off! Kids might just want to make a rocket of their own after reading this!
Mr. Panda is making a yummy surprise and all of the animals are excited to eat it. They keep asking if the surprise is ready and impatiently storm off when Mr. Panda tells them it’s not ready. The only one is patiently waiting is a penguin. Penguin keeps insisting, “I’ll wait, Mr. Panda,” every time someone asks if the yummy treat is done baking. Finally, penguin’s patience pays off and penguin is rewarded with a super awesome, yummy surprise!
A little penguin named Wellington, who lives in the snow, dreams of his own flower garden. His friends tell him that it is much too cold for flowers to grow here. Nonetheless, Wellington is determined so his best friend, Rosemary, helps him create his own flowers out of bits of paper, springs, gears, and other things that can be repurposed. Together, they create a beautiful garden. Sadly, a snow storm destroys the beautiful flowers. Wellington’s friends won’t let him give up, and together they rebuild the garden better than ever. Preschoolers will adore the cute, whimsical illustrations in this book. And everyone can benefit from the message, “we don’t know until we try.”
A polar bear is coming to visit the penguins’ home! All of the penguins are worried, except for Little Penguin, are worried because they have heard horrible things about polar bears! Yikes! Little Penguin isn’t so sure that these stories are true, and is determined to find out for himself if polar bears are really so terrible. This funny story and great moral of don’t believe everything you hear makes it a great choice for reading to your little one. Check your library for this book 🙂
Tacky is the funniest penguin! He can’t sing, dive, or march the way other penguins do; Tacky does everything his own way. At first this seems to be bad thing, but when the hunters come looking for penguins, Tacky’s odd behavior drives them away! Turns out being yourself is pretty great 😊.
This a such a sweet story to read to your little one. This rhyming text, though not very long, teaches about all of the cool things penguins can do! The book ends by telling the reader that they can do amazing things too 🙂 I like that this book shows several different types of penguins as so many books just focus on the Emperor Penguin.
Harriet loves playing dress-up! For her birthday she dresses up as a penguin in a super cute costume. Harriet and her dads decorate for her party, but realize they forgot to buy party hats. They run into a store when suddenly a flock of penguins appear. The penguins need to make a hasty getaway and Harriet, looking like a penguin, gets dragged along with them. They hop into a hot air balloon that carries them to the penguins’ icy home! Will Harriet be able to make it home for her birthday party? My friend’s 4-year-old adores this book and she highly recommends it to other preschoolers 🙂
I hope you enjoy these penguin books! My son and the preschoolers at the library’s storytime group really liked all of these books. I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. If you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy reading 🙂
Penguins are so cute and I couldn’t resist making a penguin with a heart-shaped tummy for extra adorableness! This basic shapes penguin craft is great for preschoolers to make. Not only does coloring help them with their fine motor skills needed for writing, but this craft also helps them with shapes. Take this opportunity for your kiddo to work on shape identification by saying the names of each shape as they color them.
Ask your child to name each shape as they color it. Bonus, count how many of each shape they see.
After all of the shapes have been colored, cut out the pieces. Rounded edges are hard for little ones, so an adult may need to do the cutting.
On a piece of construction paper, assemble the shapes to form a penguin. Look at the sample on the craft template. The large oval is the body; the large heart is the tummy; 2 small circles are the eyes; triangle is the beak; 2 ovals are the wings; and the 2 small hearts are the feet.
Glue all of your pieces onto the construction paper. Let your penguin dry before showing off how cute it is!
Looking for More Crafts?
Check out my Crafts Page for more fun things to make with your kiddo! There are more animal crafts to make, winter crafts, and lots of fun 🙂
