Exploring Polar Animals

Last year I did a whole unit on polar bears because one of my students just loved them. It was a really fun way to talk about the snow, cold, and animal adaptations. This year I decided to expand that topic to look at polar animals in general. (We did end up focusing a lot on penguins, however.)

Polar Animals Sensory Bin

I used the same snow dough recipe that I tried last year for the base in this bin.

 Gorilla loved helping me make the dough. :)

I added this set of polar animals, and the kids added some other containers throughout their play. In the beginning we had all the animals in the bin together, although later we talked more about which animals lived at the North Pole and which lived at the South Pole. 

Some students became engaged in dramatic type play with the animals, while others just enjoyed the sensory experience of the snow. One student loved picking up a handful and rubbing it in between his hands to make it look like it was snowing. 

North Pole/South Pole Racing Game

I set up this game and gave the kids some basic ideas for how to play, but it's always fun to see how kids create and change games to meet their own interests. 

Polar Animal Sticker Sorting

I found some polar animal stickers that we used to sort based on where they live. 

The kids were pretty familiar with some of the animal stickers, but others were not as common, so it was a fun way to talk about different kinds of animals and think about where they live. 

Some kids added their own animal drawings to the poles as well.

Polar Animal Habitat Sorting

We also used the play animals to sort based on their main habitat: land or water. Many of these animals are interesting because they spend time in each. For this activity, I filled the water table with water and snow.

Later we added some icebergs.

This activity brought up some great questions and observations about polar animals and ice, like:

The water is soooo cold! How do they stay warm? 

Why is the ice melting so fast in the water? 

Student questions are the best springboard for future lessons and learning, so we will be doing some more exploring with the cold and ice this week!