Mission: Penguin? Comic Tips

Fun Suggestions for Building Literacy Skills!

Each week we'll share helpful hints on using the comic across the grade level span.  I'll add each week's tips here so they are easy to find.  If you are new to the comic, be sure to share the backstory of the characters with your students.  You can read that at the top of the comic page or click here to read the backstory and get a pdf version to share with parents!

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If you need to share comic videos directly with students you can use these safe video links to do so:

• Backstory: bit.ly/ComicBackstory
• Week 1: bit.ly/PenguinComic_1
• Week 2: bit.ly/PenguinComic_2
• Week 3: bit.ly/PenguinComic_3
• Week 4: bit.ly/PenguinComic_4
• Week 5: bit.ly/PenguinComic_5
• Week 6: bit.ly/PenguinComic_6

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Week 1
This week's tips work across the grade level span and give you a bit of info about general use of the comics to support literacy.  
Build Prior Knowledge  When used along with the other mission materials, your students will already have some prior knowledge to support comprehension. It is also helpful to ask students what they already know about things like cats and dogs, real and imaginary, or for Week 1, volcanoes and whales to build a web of understanding that can help them understand new ideas.

One document, multiple levels!  Each comic episode supports pre-readers to upper level second grade readers.  The graphic format encourages all readers to stretch their abilities by tackling juicy words and big concepts!  

• Pre-readers can read the pictures to tell the story.
• Typical kindergarten readers can work to sound out the sound effects.  It's way more fun than reading lists of nonsense words!
• First graders are likely to find success reading speech and thought bubbles.
• The text boxes at the bottom of the comic will give most second graders something to chew on!

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Click to download mini flip chart

Week 2
Pre K:  Pre-readers can build skills as they "read the pictures"  of the comic.  Encourage students to use dramatic story language and sound effects.  Print the little book format and support children as needed to find the front cover and turn pages one at a time.
Kindergarten:  Focus on those tricky short vowel sounds using the sound effects this week!  Change the short vowel sounds in these words to create your own sound effects! 
a: lap
i: pip, hiss
o: pop, blop, zop
u: zup
Download, print, and assemble our sound substitution mini flip chart for more fun!

First Grade:  This is the time of year when some children start to zoom ahead in reading while others are taking their time with early reader books as they build a strong foundation at their own pace.  Try using the comic for a readers theater!  Those zoomers can read the text boxes, your foundation builders can do sound effect, kiddos in the middle can read the speech bubbles and EVERYONE can feel successful as they work on fluency and phrasing!
Second Grade:  You may notice we've snuck a few tricky words into the text boxes.  Your students can begin to integrate their use of context cues to puzzle out some of that richer vocabulary!  This is also a great way for those clever advancing readers to begin to work on making inferences!  Why does Data Dog need to be careful?  Why is there a smell of rotten eggs?  ​

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Week 3

Pre K:  Young children can benefit from reading expressions.  Noticing the feelings conveyed in the illustrations will help build the foundation for drawing inferences.  Have your students tell you how the characters feel in each frame and why they think they feel that way.  What evidence can they point to in the pictures to support their opinions?  

Kindergarten:  Playing with words by substituting phonemes at the beginning, middle, and end of words helps both reading AND spelling skills.  Before you introduce the comic, take a moment to play!  Write "zoom" on a whiteboard.  After children read it, erase the /m/ and challenge children to make other sound effects by adding different final sounds!  You can follow the same protocol with "zup," this time changing the middle phoneme or vowel sound.  
Medial phoneme substitutions: /z/ /u/ /p/ to /z/ /o/ /p/
Final phoneme substitutions: /z/ /oo/ /m/ to /z/ /oo/ /p/
First Grade:  Now that your students are more established readers, it might be a good time to focus on reading with inflection.  Challenge students to notice the end punctuation in each speech or thought bubble.  How would the character say those words?  Using voices for each character can further reinforce this skill.
Second Grade:  Some of the text boxes give facts and information while others describe the action in the frame or something out of view.  Have students identify which type of text is in each box.  You can color code them and then have teams assigned for choral reading for a specific text type! 

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Week 4
Pre K:  Print the full page version of the comic and attach each page to a a sheet of 12" x 18" construction paper. Look at the pictures in each panel of the comic.  Ask students to dictate a word or phrase would to describe the characters or actions in each panel and record those on the construction paper.  Bind all the pages in a book to read together!

Kindergarten:  Word keys can help unlock patterns in reading and spelling.  Our sound effects this week provide a great springboard for exploring the /up/ /op/ and /ap/ keys.  Create mini books for these word families using the corresponding comic pane for a cover.  For example, use page 7 as a cover for a book about /op/ and have students illustrate rhyming words like: mop, top, stop, or hop to create a mini book!
First Grade:  Expand on last week's work with character voices and inflection by reading with voice effects!  You'll notice that Data Dog has both speech and thought bubbles.  When reading aloud, have students read the thought bubbles holding a cup in front of their mouths to give their voice a far away and thoughtful quality!  It's not only fun, it helps increase attention to details in text.
Second Grade:  Go on an action word hunt!  Armed with only a copy of the comic and a highlighter, challenge students to see how many action words they can highlight in the text boxes.  Take it to the next level to see if they can brainstorm synonyms for those actions words.  Does the sentence have the same meaning with their new words.  How does word choice affect tone and meaning?  It's a fun way to explore this writing concepts without the daunting task of revising their own original work!

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Week 5
Pre K:  Have your students take turns acting out the comic as you read it!  Students can make the sound effects of the different animals as they pantomime the action.  The frigate bird says "ack."  The penguins say, "hee haw."  And the tortoise does not say much at all...though it can make quiet hissing and munching sounds!

Kindergarten: Phonemic awareness and phonological processing skills are an important foundational literacy skills.  They can be fun to practice too!  This activity is bound to be a hit with your more kinesthetic learners!  Make a list of the sound effects in this week's comic.  Next create a physical pattern that the class can turn into a rhythm such as {stomp, stomp, clap}.  Once everyone can join in on creating the rhythm in unison, select one of the sound effects from your list.  The goal of this game is to keep the pattern going while saying as many real or nonsense words that rhyme with the selected word as you can.  Start the rhythm:
{stomp, stomp, clap} {stomp, stomp, clap} {stomp, stomp, clap}

Start the rhyming chain with one of the words from the list, e.g. zup.  Continue the pattern and challenge students to add new words at regular intervals like this: {stomp, stomp, clap} cup {stomp, stomp, clap} mup {stomp, stomp, clap} pup {stomp, stomp, clap} flup {stomp, stomp, clap} sup.  The rhyming chain brakes when the rhythm is interrupted or you run out of rhymes!  Whoever broke the chain starts the next one!

First and Second Grade: Use the comic as a springboard for writing!  Challenge students to write their own comic panels.  Try using our template.  Students can create their own illustration.  Then write in the text box.  Each page has speech and thought bubbles students can write in then cut out and add to their comic frame.  Simply add more pages as needed!  Our illustrator, Ben, tells us that most comics try to tell the story with just three speech bubbles per panel!  It is tricker than you think.  Comics can be a hook for reluctant writers as it breaks up the task of writing into bite sized bits.  Your budding novelists (you know the ones...they use the word "very" a LOT!) can gain self editing skills as they decide what must be written and what can go!

Click to download comic template

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Week 6
Pre K:  Have students take turns reading the pictures to tell the story.  Provide props like Omni Glasses (try 3D printing ours), a rolled up drawing, suitcases, books about animals, and stuffed animals.  Have children make up their own adventures!

Kindergarten:  There's lots of pressure to get kids reading earlier than ever, often in direct opposition to what we know about child development.  So what's the conscientious teacher to do?  Work on skills in a way that honors the developmental needs of young children!  A rhyming relay is one way to do that. Here's how to play: 

1. Select some words from the comic, such as all the sound effects ending in /p/. 
2. Next have students brainstorm words that rhyme with each word they selected from the comic.  (pop: bop, drop, cop, stop, mop, hop, kerplop, zop, etc.)  Depending on the needs of your students you might write each word on a card.
3. Split the class into relay teams and select a rhyme captain for each team.  This is a good role for a child who is very good at rhyming.
4. Have each team form a line on one side of the room and position the rhyming captain for each team opposite that team's line on the other side of the room.  
5. Begin play by giving the first child in line for each relay team a word (or word card) then have that student move to the other side of the room in any manner you choose. (skip, hop, crawl, crab walk, whatever!)
6. When that child reaches the rhyme captain, they must say a word that rhymes with the one they've been given.  The captain confirms the rhyme and sends the child back to their team with the new word (either in their memory or with a word card.)
7. The next child in the line takes the new word to the rhyme captain and then produces a new rhyming word for the captain to confirm.  
8. Repeat steps six and seven until the first team gets back to their first rhymer.​

First Grade:  Students have practiced using a cup to create a "thinking" voice.  Brainstorm other voices for the new characters in the comic this week.  What will Darwin's voice sound like?  How about Curtis and Beth?  Then challenge students to read the speech bubbles using character voices.
Second Grade: Now that you have the full set of comics, you can set up a multimedia readers theater performance of the full story!  Project each comic behind your readers and invite other classes or parents to come see your performance.  Of course, no costuming is necessary in reader's theater, but if your class is so inclined they could even create simple props or costumes.  You can give everyone a role by having multiple sea lion pups, tortoises, and penguins.  
All grades:  Try your hand at drawing finches or other birds in your area!  Be sure to notice tiny details and include them in your drawings.