Sample Cup Penguin Activities

Sample cups (the kind used for small tastes of yogurt or sides of ketchup) can be turned into the cutest penguins. You can find them in the grocery store. Once made, these penguins can be used for a variety of learning activities and pretend play areas. Here, we share a few ideas.

Sample Cup Penguins Craft

What you need:

Paper sample cups
Black paint
Orange craft foam
Goggle eyes

What you do:

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Paint sample cups black, leaving small traingles of white showing for the penguins' bellies.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Add goggle eyes and orange beaks to each painted sample cup. Then, use the sample cup penguins to teach letters, numbers, rhymes, and more! There are so many possiblities!

Where's the Letter P? Game

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

In this game, one player hides the letter P under one of three penguin sample cups. Then, he/she moves the cups around without exposing the letter. The other players try to follow the movements of the cups in order to guess where the cup hiding the P lands. Game can be played with other letters and/or numbers as well.

Sequencing Alphabet Letters (Or Numbers)

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Paint alphabet letters in white paint on the tops of the penguin sample cups. Let children place the penguins in order from A-Z. Another option is to remove a few letters, so children have to figure out which letters are missing and place the missing letters in their correct spots. (These activities can also be done with numbers.)

Penguin Finger Puppets and Rhyme

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Cut holes in the tops of the penguin sample cups to make finger puppets. Use the puppets as props when reciting related rhymes. Only three are needed for the rhyme below.

Three Little Penguins

Original Author Unknown

Three little penguins, dressed in white and black.
Waddle, waddle forward and waddle right back!
Three little penguins, in a funny pose,
They are wearing their evening clothes.
Their suits are black and their vests are white.
They waddle to the left and they waddle to the right.
They stand on the ice and they look very neat,
As they waddle along on their little flat feet.