As the cold weather comes in I love to teach about the colder themes, one of my favorites is polar animal activities. There are so many wonderful activities that can be used to teach about the various animals that live in this frigid climate and how they stay warm. For example, there is the blubber experiment for your children to learn how the blubber or fat of an animal can keep them warm when the temperatures drop. This activity is hands-on to help teach your students a little bit about life in the Arctic.
For toddlers, there are many activities to teach the polar animal theme. For example, file folders are a great way to introduce the various animals or design a polar scene to boost creativity and imagination. The activities to boost the polar animal theme are endless.
Polar Animal Theme
The first step in starting the polar animal theme is with decorating the class to fit in with the learning and creating an environment for fun and engagement. Some items I like to include are a word wall with various items related to the new theme, books, and posters. Some items to add to the class might be changing out the sensory table materials to match the new topic of interest. By adding new items in the class this helps to keep the classroom fun and entertaining for the students. By adding new items you can also help to prevent boredom and behaviors from creeping into the class environment.
When we use stories to help teach new information it provides a story that can be remembered in a more useful manner. Also, we are teaching children that books are important, we can learn from them, and that words have meaning. Using word wall cards can help reinforce key items from the theme when not directly teaching new facts or ideas. The posters can help reinforce new vocabulary and as a reference for new learning. When we use items in many different ways we teach children how to be their little investigators with learning on their own.
Arctic Animal Math Activities
The Arctic animal math activities can be a tricky idea to find math fun for any preschooler. Math activities can seem like they are not fun or exciting but they don’t have to be boring. Some basic math skills to work on are counting, making patterns, learning shapes, and graphs. Some simple ways to make math fun are a simple spin and graph activity. This can be the various animals that live in the Arctic and then each child can color the graph area to record the results.
Size matching can also be used to help teach that objects have various sizes and that we can measure objects with words as well as with numbers. Pattern cards can help teach children how to follow a pattern and learn how to problem solve based on what can be next in the order. Learning how to make predictions is the beginning of learning critical thinking skills. Simple counting items a student is playing with can help teach basic numeracy skills. This also can help teach about the quantity needed for each number.
Arctic Animals Preschool Theme
Working on fine motor skills can be a tough skill to practice, The arctic animals preschool theme can help make this skill more inviting by the use of lacing cards. Lacing cards can be a challenge to a toddler but shouldn’t be overlooked as a way to measure these small hand muscle strengths over time. Lacing cards will be an activity that needs to be shown and performed hand over hand for the first few times. Once your students get the pattern and hand-eye-coordination skills they will be able to perform this task independently by the end of the school year.
This type of activity can also help aid scissor skills another needed skill for life that may make you as a teacher cringe with fear and trembling when helping children learn how to master this skill. File folder activities can help with hand-eye coordination skills while working on matching. Compared to the other activities this is less invasive and torturous for the teacher. The file folder activities help promote the theme and allow problem-solving skills that might seem simple.
Polar Animal Interactive Activities
When it comes to animal activities it’s easy to make them interactive; the polar animal interactive activities can include feed the animal, design a polar scene, and an animal movement game. By adding an interactive component to the activity we build on skills that we might not think to use creatively. The feed the polar animal activity includes shapes, numbers, and letters. This one activity can build on three different skills depending on the needs of the class. This can also be an activity performed multiple times with each skill focused each time.
The design of a polar scene can help boost creativity and imagination skills. This is a great individual or paired activity. When adding a peer you can encourage turn-taking and communication skills by each child working together to make one scene.
The polar animal movement game helps teach students the animal movements animals and perform the same movements with their bodies. These large physical movements help build coordination skills and help develop pretend play skills.
Polar Animal Preschool Theme
The polar animal preschool theme can help turn the winter blues into winter fun. These interactive and educational activities can help your students learn some new skills or build on their current skill level during the long, cold winter days. Check out the links below for more from the flock and other polar animal activities.
More Resources…
Pinterest Polar Animals Preschool
Teaching 2 and 3-year-olds
Engaging Littles
Pinterest Prek Arctic Theme
