Our study of Winter Animals in our environment naturally led us to those curious creatures in the poles. We continued to dive into nonfiction texts to learn about different polar animals, as well as videos and songs. The children's questions guided our discussions. Below is a list of facts that the students learned at the end of our research on polar bears. We even compared our own feet to a polar bear'
s life-size paw! The animals that we studied included polar bears, penguins, snowy owls, Arctic Fox, Arctic Hare, walrus, and the Orca whale.
Question of the Day
STEM
Students used their creativity to build habitats for our polar animals using wooden blocks and white felt as snow.
The children played a game to practice letter matching. They rolled a letter die and then searched a pool of fish for the matching letter which they then fed to a penguin.
Science
We learned that polar animals have special features to help them stay warm in the cold temperatures of the Arctic and Antarctic including feathers, warm fur and blubber. In order to test the effectiveness of blubber, the students quickly placed their hand in a bowl of ice and described how it felt. They then placed their hand in a bag of blubber (Crisco) and dipped their hand in the ice again. They compared their experiences and noted how the blubber kept their hand warm and dry.
Art
The children practiced many skills such as cutting, gluing, drawing and following "written" directions while creating animal crafts. We made polar bear puppets, polar animal sun catchers, sponge painted owls and penguins.
Game
Students practiced color identification, matching, turn taking and memory skills while playing the game Pengaloo.
Our sensory activities for the week included rescuing animals from ice using a hammer and playing with pretend snow which we made from hair conditioner and cornstarch.
