Roll and Read (Yellow)
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5When they run, they use their wings to change direction quickly. / Many birds cannot fly! They are called flightless birds. / An egg hatches when the chick inside pecks its way out of it. / Female emus can lay up to ten bluish-green eggs at one time. / Have you every traveled to a country where flightless birds live?
The sound of male kakapos booming can be heard from more than four miles away. / There bones are heavier than those of flying birds. / They have flippers instead of wings. / Male emus sit on the nests for about fifty-five days, until the chicks hatch. / Scientists believe that the ancestors of flightless birds could fly.
Kagus are endangered because of hunting by dogs and cats. / Like humans, all birds have a sternum, or breastbone. / Many penguins live on and around the frozen continent of Antarctica. / Cassowaries are found in the swamps and rain forests of Australia and New Guinea. / Scientists also think that flightless birds became flightless because the animals that once hunted them became extinct.
Kakapos are parrots found in New Zealand. / Ostriches are the largest birds in the world. They live in Africa. / You may have seen penguins in an aquarium cuddle and snuggle with their chicks. / Cassowaries weigh about 130 pounds. They eat fruit, insects, frogs, and snakes. / They have few feathers and are black in color. They weigh about nine pounds.
There is a flightless bird called the kiwi. It lives in New Zealand. / Both parents guard the nest while waiting for the eggs to hatch. / Have you ever watched a penguin preen, or clean and smooth its feathers? / This world map shows the homes of many flightless birds. / Flightless cormorants have webbed feet and are great swimmers.
If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
Roll and Read (Green)
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. / Satellites help scientists study the weather in Antarctica. / For emperor penguins, seals, fish, and whales, the climate in Antarctica is just right. / Penguins use their bills to preen, or clean and smooth their feathers. / They use a radio called an acoustic sounder.
But penguins, seals, fish, and whales live there year-round. / Weather information from the satellites is sent down to Earth. / Scientists will continue to study Antarctica’s climate and what for signs of change. / Scientists in Antarctica also study the weather with balloons. / The beeping sounds make an echo that tells scientists the wind’s speed and direction.
Few people other than scientists have been to Antarctica. / Some parts of Antarctica have become warmer. / In this way they are protecting the animals that make their home there. / Each day, they launch the balloons into the air. / Antarctica is very windy. It is also very dry.
It is a frozen continent covered in ice. / Female emperor penguins lay one egg. / Emperor penguins spend their whole lives in Antarctica. / Radios attached to the balloons record information about the air. / Antarctica is so dry that scientists call it a desert.
The South Pole is the farthest south that you can go! / Soon the chick is ready to hatch. It pecks at the shell until it breaks. / Penguins cannot fly. But they are very good swimmers. / Scientists study the weather in Antarctica. / The small amount of snow that falls there never melts.
If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
Roll and Read (Blue)
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5Penguins are dark on the back and white on the front. / Because those body parts are smaller, emperor penguins lose less body heat. / The calcium from the mollusk shells thickens the penguins’ eggshells. / Emperor penguins get a lot of attention for being the biggest penguins. / Penguins’ beaks have different shapes based on what they hunt and eat.
Predators swimming on the ocean surface see black when they look down into the dark water. / Emperor penguins also have a layer of fat called blubber. / The king penguin is the second largest penguin. / All penguins share lives that are tied to the sea and the Southern Hemisphere’s marine ecosystem. / The Adelie penguin’s beak is short and stubby for catching krill.
Most amazingly, this is the time they choose to incubate their eggs! / A rookery is a colony of birds or other animals who have come together to nest and raise their young. / The pupil is the black opening in the center of the eye. / The smallest penguin in the world is the little blue penguin. / Male emperor penguins huddle to help conserve heat.
He warms the egg with his brood patch, which is a warm patch of featherless skin. / They build their nests out of pebbles and lay two eggs. / A crest is a tuft of feathers that sticks up from a bird’s head. / Instead of making a nest, the little blue penguin digs a burrow in the ground. / The inner fluffy part is called down. The down traps air close to the penguin, keeping the penguin warm.
Emperor penguins breathe very cold Antarctic air. / Magellanic penguins live on the southern tip of South America and the islands around Antarctica. / All crested penguins have similar nesting habits. / Penguins also cool off by panting, seeking shade, and lying down on the ice. / The Southern Hemisphere is the natural home of the world’s penguins.
If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
* Use with "Penguin Chick” 3.2.1