Why don't penguins need to fly? Year 1 investigates 8.12.21

Throughout the Autumn term, as part of their Geography work, Pine and Beech class have been investigating ‘Why don’t penguins need to fly?’ They began their learning by reading the story called ‘What’s in the egg Little Pip?’ by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. They investigated the continent of physical landscape of Antarctica. Using a world map they located the 7 continents and 5 oceans and learnt that Antarctica is a cold desert and is the coldest, windiest and driest place on Earth.  After reading the story called ‘Don’t be afraid Little Pip’ they investigated how penguins are adapted in order to survive in such a cold place. They then began to compare the Arctic (North Pole) with the Antarctic (South Pole) and using a map with a key they realised that the Arctic is not a continent as it mostly ice floating on the sea whereas Antarctica is a continent as it is ice on land. They then learnt about how polar bears are adapted to survive in the Arctic and found out how tricky it is for polar bears to live in a place where the ice melts in spring and this ice melt is increasing due to global warming. The children realised how fragile a polar bears food chain is as each part of the food chain relies on one another. They then investigated a hot desert, the Sahara and learnt about the landscape and how camels are adapted in order to survive in such conditions. In conclusion, the children realised that it is more important for penguins to be able to swim rather then fly. Although they are birds, they have no reason to fly in order to hunt or escape predators as their food and predators are in the water. Penguins ‘fly’ when they swim in the water!