Students love learning about polar bears. Here are several teaching ideas and activities for your classroom.
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Let's begin with a cute song, sung to the tune of "My Bonnie."
The polar bear lives in the Arctic,
He never gets cold in a storm,
He swims in the icy cold water,
His heavy coat keeps him warm.
Warm, warm, warm, warm,
His heavy coat keeps him warm.
Warm, warm, warm, warm,
His heavy coat keeps him warm!
Polar Bear Hand Puppet
Polar Bear Hand Puppet
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A lesson on camouflage: (I think this came from a Teacher's Mailbox)
Step 1: Prepare precut shapes of a polar bear ready - cut out of white paper.
Step 2: Each student receives two polar bears.
Step 3: The first one is glued to a totally white piece of paper - I used about a 5 inch square.
Step 4: The other one also gets glued to another square of the same size but first the students draw a habitat that would be different than the Arctic. For instance, they could draw a jungle, forest, city or farm scene.
Step 5: When the students glue the second polar bear down he stands out like a sore thumb. On the first, all-white square, representing the Arctic environment, he blends right in. This gives them a very good understanding of how natural camouflage works.
Camouflage North Pole Game
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Camouflage North Pole Game
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Another fun action rhyme:
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Turn around,
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Make no sound.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Dance on your toes,
Polar bear, Polar bear.
Touch your nose.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Show your paws.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Hide your claws.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Reach up high
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Wink one eye.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Say good-night,
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Shut your eyes tight.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Wake up now,
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Take a bow.
The students could make their own puppets to help act out the story:
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Now for science...
Blubber Mitten Experiment
You'll need:
Crisco (or other fat)
2 zipable sandwich bags
A bowl of ice water with ice cubes
Procedure:
Fill one of the zipper bags about 1/3 full of shortening, then turn the remaining zipper bag inside out. Place it carefully inside the bag with the shortening so that you are able to zip the one bag to the other. This creates a "blubber mitten" for the students to put their hand in.
Have the students take turns putter their bare hands in the bowl of cold water and see just how cold it is!
Next, students place their hands in the "blubber mitten" and then place the mittened hand in the ice water.
How cold does the water seem with the "blubber mitten" on?
Do you think a nice layer of blubber would be great protection against cold?
Have the students research other animals that have a layer of blubber to keep them warm.
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....and don't forget math!
Step 1: Brainstorm a list of arctic animals.
Step 2: Survey the class to determine favorite arctic animals.
Step 3: Students use graph paper to create a graph of the data. Other ideas include moving the desks around to create a "live" graph and/or create a whole group graph for a bulletin board.
Step 4: In groups, students create a list of five true facts and five false facts from the graph. For example, "More students like penguins than polar bears."
Step 5: Students participate in teams in a trivia type game to answer "true or false" to the facts created.
44 Piece Polar Play Set - Great for Math Manipulatives
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44 Piece Polar Play Set - Great for Math Manipulatives
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