Freezing Penguins

Lonely penguins get cold!
Help them find their friends so they can warm each other up.

Pre-braille Activity

Fine motor skills
Pretend play
Spatial concepts
Tactile exploration

Level: 1

Number of players: 1 and +

Duration: 10 min

Skills:

Develop coordination
Locate objects
Listen and empathise
Engage in pretend-play sequences

The bricks are penguins on an ice field – 5 lonely penguins are freezing in the cold. Find friends for the freezing penguins and place them next to each other for warmth.

Goals

This story introduces children to concepts such as left/right and hot/cold. It’s a great way to increase their vocabulary and knowledge of penguins, ice floes, the Earth and the poles.

The adult prepares

5 random bricks on a baseplate
5 random bricks in a bowl or a bag

Make a column with 5 vertical bricks. Start at the top left-hand corner, leave 2 and 3-stud spaces between them.

The children play

The child takes penguins from the bowl and place them on the right side, next to each freezing penguin. The second penguin will warm the freezing penguin up!

Do you see here?
It’s a lonely penguin.
Really, really cold.
Okay? But here we have friends.
And they can warm the other up.
So what do we do?
We take one penguin and we attach this
penguin next to his friend.
So they are together
and they are not freezing anymore.
Do you want to help this one?
Adding a friend?
So take a friend.
Okay.
And add it, so it’s not cold anymore.
Okay, so look, we have two penguins.
Happy penguins.
And here: it’s a freezing penguin!
Can you find a friend
to place here,
close to this one? And press hard!
Okay, now they are
three.
Can you add it here?
Okay.
Next to it.
Okay, good.
So we use two hands, one to feel
where the penguin is,
the other to come next to it.
And press!
And look,
They are all happy.
Thank you. Good job.

Facilitation tips

Encourage the child to use both hands.
Start with more than 5 bricks on the baseplate.
Add more than one penguin and ask which one is the warmest and why.
Place the starter bricks randomly on the baseplate, so the child can add penguins to the left, top or bottom of the starting brick.