Thursday, December 31, 2015

Tacky the penguin by Helen Lester illustrated by Lynn Munsinger





Have you met this cute penguin?  His name is Tacky.  He is very different from his companions but this difference is something to be celebrated.  "Tacky was a odd bird but a very nice bird to have around."

In this first installment the hunters arrive.  They are determined to catch some pretty penguins but they are greeted by the unconventional Tacky.  He drives them away with his awful singing - "How many toes does a fish have and how many wings on a cow?" and his huge splashy cannonball dives.

At the beginning of each year I love to introduce Tacky to my Grade One students.  Luckily for me there are ten titles in this series including a new one I have just discovered Tacky and the Haunted Igloo.

You can find a list of all the books Helen Lester here and if you hover over the title you can see a cover image.

You can buy an interactive version of Tacky the Penguin for use on your device. It is very well done and we use it with our classes.  Here is a play of the story and some penguin poems. Here are some teacher notes.  I also have a few craft and teaching ideas for this book series in my Pinterest collection.  You could follow the reading of Tacky the Penguin with Elmer on Stilts which also looks at ingenious ways to foil animal hunters.

This is my last post for 2015 - see you again in 2016 and Happy New Year!


No comments: