Arctic Wonders: Unveiling the Marvels of Polar Bears

Winter at last!! It's that time of year to start learning all about polar bears and arctic animals.  There are so many resources out there, that it can be hard to know where to start or how to narrow it down.  In preparation, I've compiled a list of videos to show and books to read.  I've made sure that the videos still work too.  There is nothing worse than having a video with a dead link.  I've also listed an experiment to try and I've even included a Freebie for you along the way.

Polar Bear Videos

Meet the Polar Bear

My Kids Loved to sing this fun song last year.

I can't wait to teach my class this song this year. 

The Polar Bear Song

Cool Cute Cubs: Amazing Animal Babies

If you liked the song above, you might like this one too.

This is another fun song I found years ago. I do not know where this came from If you know please email me so I can give a proper reference

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 Resources

I've created a unit on Polar Bears that would make a great addition to the videos above. It included vocabulary cards, activities and science experiments.

Blubber Science Experiment

We will also be doing the blubber experiment.  Have you ever tried it? Preparing it is kind of messy.  Here are some pictures and how to steps to get you started. You will need:

• 1 large can of shortening 
• 2 Large ziplock bags
• Duck Tap
• 1 large container to hold water

Now for the fun part.  Fill a container with ice water.  Have your students put one hand inside the blubber bag and one hand inside the ice water.  If all goes as planned, the hand inside the blubber should be able to stay in the water longer. Last year I let my students place their hands inside a dry ziplock bag to keep their sleeves dry.  I used a small garbage can as my container, I only have access to my classroom sink for water so lugging a huge tub of water outside in the winter wasn't possible for me.

Books are the best part. Put a bucket of books out for your kids to explore, stand back, and listen as they share and talk with each other about what it is they are seeing.

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These are some of my favorite books about polar bears.  Polar Opposites was a new one for me last year.  This year I will be using it to introduce the vocabulary word opposite. Kindle subscribers read it for free.  

Ice Bear is another one of my absolute favorites!!!  I bought it with an audio CD. I highly recommend it.  Sometimes having someone else tell a story is just more entertaining for your little ones than having them listen to you. 

Here are links to all the other books shown above.

Are you still hanging with me- Now it's time for that little Freebie I promised.  Once we've learned all about polar bears.  My kids will be working on their very first non-fiction reports.  They are kindergartners, after all, so this is meant to be simple. 

Well, that is it.  I hope I've given you some valuable resources.  If you have some that I haven't shared here, please list them in the comments.