Hi there, my name is Pepper and I am a penguin. I shall be your Aquatots pal for Level 4 and I am so excited about what we shall get up to together this term. Penguins have so much fun and always make people laugh.
I just know that you, Mummy & Daddy will be doing a lot of laughing this term as we learn lots more important swimming skills in a fun way together.
Let me tell you a little bit more …
In level 4 we introduce new water entry skills as by now your baby is likely to be more confident and very eager to get into the water and it therefore becomes even more important for us to focus on safety and additional life saving skills to assist them. As always this is all carried out with a fun element too so that every valuable skill learnt is done so in an enjoyable and fun environment to keep our young ones stimulated and happy as they no doubt start to become more wilful as they develop and grow. Our swim stroke is further perfected in this level too with more shallow swims and developing our orientation and directional skills under the water. Level 4 is often a milestone time for parents as your children make far more voluntary and independent moves in the water demonstrating how confident they have become and how much they have already learnt and can do with minimal assistance.
My name is Pepper, and I am an Emperor Penguin, although there are actually 18 different types of penguin. I wonder if you could name a few?
Now some of our bird friends think we are a little strange as we don't fly. I keep on telling them, it's because we don't need to fly. We are happier under the water looking for fish!! We use our wings for pushing us along under the water. Why do we need to fly? We are a very special bird!
OK, our walking looks a bit funny, because our legs are designed to push us through the water very fast. We penguins, are the best swimmers of all the birds in the world.
We mostly live in the Antarctic where it can get very cold, although some of our cousins do live in warmer countries too. We penguins are very brave and stay here all through the cool winter, while everyone else heads off to the warm sun. I don't understand why, we have all the fish we need to eat right here.
Penguins have a special warm skin, our feathers are oily and keep us nice and warm but did you know that Daddy penguins are particularly brave in the cold? In the winter we all make a huddle squeezing up together, it’s so much fun and we see all our friends and family. It’s lovely and warm in the huddle too. The Daddy penguins take it in turn to stand around the outside to keep us all warm. My Daddy is special and loves me very much. When I was in my egg, growing up to hatch, my Daddy stood over me for 65 days keeping me warm while Mummy went off with her friends to get food, a little bit like shopping your parents do. My Daddy didn't leave me until I was big enough to hatch. We are carnivores and our favourite food is fish, lots of lovely yummy fish!! I will eat lots of lovely fish to make my bones grow big and strong. Do you like fish too? Fish can make you big and strong and help to give you energy to stay warm and swim really fast? I will grow into a big penguin and catch lots of fish myself. I expect you have seen funny videos of us jumping into water and swimming off really fast, it takes lots of practice learning to swim like a penguin. You will be able to do that one day.
For now why not have a go at walking like a penguin. It’s very funny!