Winter Comes to Transitional Kindergarten – Penguin Books to Chill Your Shelves

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BRR! It’s getting cold in here! CKA Board Member Heather Morrow shares this great list of penguin themed books she uses in her Transitional Kindergarten classroom.

If You Were a Penguin; by Wendell and Florence Minor
This story allows children to imagine being a penguin and begins by asking “If you were a penguin, what could you do?” The illustrations in this book are beautiful and inviting. The rhyming text is simple yet informative. A variety of penguins are depicted with additional fun facts at the end.

Fluff and Billy by Nicola Killen
Two penguins are the best of friends and do everything the same until something happens that leads to silence between the two. The story is simple yet very relatable for young children. There are many different verbs that can be identified and a lesson can easily be built around making this book great for English Language Development.

Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere! by Bob Barner
A rhyming story about the life of penguins in both cold and warm climates. It shows various penguin activities along with some things penguins must watch out for. It includes a variety of penguin species. Bob Barner uses a collage technique for the illustrations which could be used as an art activity in the classroom.

The Emperor’s Egg by Martin Jenkins ~ This is a story about the difficult and unusual circumstances a father penguin must go through to take care of his offspring. The text is written in an easy manner to understand for young students and the pictures are engaging. It describes how the Emperor penguin must keep the egg on his feet to keep the egg warm and safe. This lends itself to having students attempt to keep an egg (or beanbag) on their feet while waddling.

Penguins ABC by Kevin Shafer
This book practices the ABCs using penguin photographs and words related to the life of a penguin (“A is for Antarctica and E is for Emperor”). The pictures are bright and energetic and children learn a variety of vocabulary words.


Penguins! by Gail Gibbons
This is a good introductory non-fiction book about penguins. Some of the text may be “above” kindergarteners or their attention span, but can be easily adapted or paraphrased.

Penguins! (National Geographic Kids) by Anne Schreiber
All of the National Geographic quality at an early reader level. The pictures are colorful and engaging and the text is clear.

Penguin and Pinecone: A Friendship Story by Salina Yoon
A heart-warming story of a little penguin who finds a pinecone and develops a friendship. Penguin’s Grandfather convinces Penguin to return the pinecone to its natural habitat to allow it to grow and sadly Penguin agrees. Penguin doesn’t forget about pinecone and goes to visit it and finds out that pinecone hasn’t forgotten about Penguin either. They are reunited and the love between then continued to grow.

Do you do a penguin or winter theme in your classroom? Have a favorite book? Please share! We’d love to hear from you.

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