Polar Bears and Penguins is our next unit! Anyone got any ideas? I have most of the stuff I need, but I am at a lost for a few last minute touches. Art, math, science, small motor, writing/tracing/letters...?
Jen., let me dig through my Mailbox magazines. I'll try to do this by tomorrow night. Our next habitat is the polar region, so I need some good ideas too.
I got on the National Geographic website for lesson plans. They have suggestions for older and younger students. They also linked to this page for the NOAA for an arctic theme: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/gallery.html This is the page for National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/05/gk2/polar.html and that one linked to this activity page: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/05/circles.html The NOAA page has tons of links with photos from the poles and animal photos as well. I didn't check the links out on that one (probably over 100), but they seemed very interesting. I'm sure you could taylor it for your group of kids. I always like to do something with animal tracks when we are able. It would be fun to make the tracks in the snow.
http://www.edhelper.com/DailyThemes_February_27.html http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/pb_p_math.PDF maths http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/maths/placethepenguin.shtml penguin math game http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/penguins/penguin_science.htm http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/penguins/lesson2.html http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/measypenguin.html craft http://www.coloring.ws/penguins1.htm colouring http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/sketch_polar.html colouring http://www.first-school.ws/theme/cpseasons_winter.htm letters HTH
YW Deena Heres another http://www.hummingbirded.com/penquins_arctic.html Sorry about the ed helper one you have to be a memmber for those to work I just realized. Don't polar bears and penguins live at oppitsit poles? Maybe that dosn't matter.
Here's some fun stuff. I love Animal Cams! Polar Bear Plunge, San Diego Zoo Cam Penguin Cam, New York City Zoo These are just 2. There are tons of Animal cams out there, many more on just these two animals. While they will not show the animals in the wild, you can still discuss behavior you see, plus, they're just plain fun.
I went to those sites and the screens were blank. Is there a specific time when you can see stuff happening?
Be sure to read "Mr. Popper's Penguins" as a Read-Aloud! If you're not familiar with it, it's a very cute story! Polar bears do the opposite of hibernate. The actually "sleep" in the summer when it's hot, rather than in the winter.
You do need to go when it will be daylight wherever those cams are, as most the exhibits are outside and if they're inside, the keepers will have the lights out at night.
Hi Jen... Here is some of what I did: For bears.. I had a pattern of a bear and wrote the days of the weeks on it, and used one cowboy hat. After laminating these, I mounted that on poster board. We switched it each day.This could easily be adapted to months of the years OR seasons. You might already do days of the weeks in your opening. What I did for another son was used the basic patterns *ABC* and *AABB*..I did basic patterns with plastic colored links and the plastic colored bears everybody has. When he figured out which pattern it was, he put the cowboy hat on the bear of which pattern I did. I did more patterns too. *AB,AB* too. We read Goldilocks, on ole favorite, then I did a character wheel since this lends itself well to oral retelling. I used 2 paperplates, the cheap kind. I cut one pie shape out of one paperplate before I let him decorate it like a house. He used brown colors and made black windows and we used toothpicks for the roof. Then I used clip art, I think I even had some patterns of the characters, baby bear, poppa bear and momma bear to glue on the 2nd paper plate. Then we used a brad and put the *house paper plate* on top of the other paper plate. Then turn the Character Wheel and tell the story of which character you are looking at in the cut out pie shape....... I worked on the clock/telling time at this unit too.. We talked about time to the hour and used a huge Judy clock. Before I had that, the dollar store had foam clocks for 1.00. So we punched out the numbers and laid out the numbers 1 to 12 to see many how numbers the clock uses. Then they put the numbers back on the clock in order. We also talked about sleeping and tied this in with the bear. We get up at 7:00 we go to school at 8:00, lunch at 12:00, play at 3:00, supper at 7:00 and SLEEP at 10:00...We discussed the long hand is called the minute hand and short hand isthe hour hand. We used trace erase boards to trace our numbers through 12 too. For penguins.. I did one idea I saw somewhere:roll: ...I never remember where over the years.. We used brown paper bags and painted them with black tempera paint with a sponge or huge paint brush... When it dries, paint a white dome shape on it to represent the penguin's belly. Be sure the bottom part of the paper bag is turned UP...because that is where you cut for the head. So paint the white part at the TOP of the paper bag(the the part that is already opened), clear as mud?:lol: So when you turn the bag upside down, the white belly is where it's suppose to be.. We even glued on a bow tie on our penguins. To make them look like they are wearing tuxedos... The cute thing is the cut in the armholes. Not a round one but an oval, but not complete oval. So it looks like flippers.. Cut an longer oval and your black flippers will hang over their arms.. REALLY CUTE..... We froze water too..since penguins do slide on the ice. What happens when it is liquid, it goes to solid? Of course you don't have to use those terms, but what happens to water when it is cold? We added some blue food coloring and stuck it in the refrigerator..WOW...they were so impressed (it's the little things).:lol: ... I also did some *blubber work* with the boys... Why doesn't the bear feel the cold?....this is real easy activity.. It just requires a rubber glove, lard (Crisco), ice and water and big bowl. Put water, lots of ice into a bowl, so it's real cold. Of course, everyone sticks their hands into the icy water and feels that it was cold... WhOOOO HAAAA....They all agree it's cold! Then we put the glove on, put Crisco all over it, cover it, and then stick it back in the ice water. Did we feel it? No...the blubber acts like a coat <insulator> to keep the bear warm,blah.. All right, that is part of what I did OR what I could remember off the top of my head.... HTH
I thought Brenda would appreciate the shirt he's got on. He's wearing it again today as a matter of fact. I want to post a picture of my daycare kids, but I don't have a good one of all of them that is recent. I'm working on that!
Ask the parents, Jen!! I emailed you a file of polar activities. It's LARGE. Let me know when you get it.
I think that an interesting addition to the study of arctic animals would be to contrast them with tropical animals, and to draw the contrasts and the similarities
That is a good idea.. I'm doing habitats with my 5 yr old and that would be one more habitat to look at. Thank you. Hi, momshea4, I'm Becky. This is our 1st year h.s.ing. My daughter is in K.
