Penguin Project

About three weeks ago we got a paper from Nathan's teacher about a penguin project he had to due. It was due on February 2nd. He had to make a 3-D model of a penguin of his choice. He chose to do an Emperor Penguin. We decided to make it out of clay, but we decided not to do just one penguin, but three. That's because he told me about tobogganing and porpoising and we also learned that the Dad incubates the egg after the Mom lays the egg. (see the individual photos to learn what each of these mean) It was really exciting for him to tell me these things without me asking him. It shows me that he's really paying attention in school.

We got the clay and Nathan did all the shaping and decided how to make the one jumping out of the water. That one was the most difficult. So we did a little research on them so he would know what colors to paint them. Nathan did all the painting too. Chris cut the box and painted the inside of it and I printed the labels and attached them. Nathan also had to fill out a sheet with facts and features about the Emperor penguin. Did you know it could stay under water for 18 minutes? Did you know it can mate at age 4 and only lives to about 20 years?

The Mom lays the egg, then the Dad incubates it. While the egg incubates the Dad does not feed at all.

The penguin porpoises by jumping out of the water to get oxygen, but they do it at a high speed so they don't slow down.
This just looks like fun. Tobogganing down a snowy hill!

I think the finished project came out really great. I just hope we can get it into the school tomorrow without it breaking!