Aoife,
thanks for the book recommendation. I’m not familiar with it, but see that Cork County Council Library service has it as one of their borrowable books:
The Emperor’s Egg by Martin Jenkins – 10 copies
Can you imagine being a male emperor penguin and standing around in the freezing cold with an egg on your feet for two months. Welcome to the story of the world’s most devoted dad!
There are Humboldt Penguins at Fota, and Fota shared this workbook with images about them: https://www.fotawildlife.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/HumboldtPenguinWorkbook.pdf
Interestingly – none of the adaptations they list are to do with being in a cold climate!
Reading about the Penguins at Fota, I discovered that there are penguins on the Galapagos, which is at the equator. This could be very interesting ‘next step’ as the children test how a penguin might be different in a much warmer climate.
https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/galapagos-penguin-facts/
In the discussion that you propose, would their be the opportunity for the children to test their ideas? They might wonder how thick fur or feathers can help keep something that is warm warm, or something that is cold, cold. They could try changing number of layers of a jumper around their hand and does their hand stay warm?
