Pre-School (Help) Save The Penguins
There is 6,077miles between St Francis School and Dyer Island, South Africa, but that doesn’t stop St Francis’s sense of community. Pupils in Little Saints, St Francis’s Nursery, have spent the last week focussing on penguins, and in doing so have raised enough to buy a two penguin house, which will hopefully provide a home for a nesting pair of African penguins and their subsequent chicks.
Pre-School Teacher, Holly van Lochem explained: “We have used penguins as our subject this week – everything from messy play (with ice shavings and foam) to exploring what other words begin with the letter /P/. The children have asked many questions about penguins, and then researched the answers themselves using books, the internet and one pupil even told us about an Octonauts episode all about Emperor Penguins and how the Daddy penguin looks after the eggs.
Bringing the penguins into other areas of curriculum, we practised our physical literacy in P.E. by using a football as a penguin egg; in our French lessons we learnt how to say “penguin” (manchot) and other associated words. Kay Francis, the Director of Music at St Francis then rehearsed songs from “Eddie Penguin Saves the World” with the Pre-School pupils.
The money raised through our black and white penguin day was fantastic, as we had learnt that African penguins would go extinct within 8 years if we don’t do something. Whilst our nesting box may be a drop in the ocean, it is important to show our pupils that we can (and have) done something to help the situation”.