Polar Animals

Dramatic Play

Week 1, Antarctica Expedition
One of the objectives of this unit is to learn that penguins live in Antarctica, the South Pole, and polar bears live in the Arctic, the North Pole. As well as identify other animals that live at either, or both, of those poles. So our first week was everything South Pole.






We had our tent for the scientists with pictures of scientists working in Antarctica. They had notebooks, pencils, maps, binoculars, and magnifying glasses. Outside the tent, they could find animal pictures and toy animals.




Week 2, the tent became a polar bear cave. The pictures and animal toys switched to those that can be found in the Arctic.








The kids loved both centers, and switching up the animals halfway through definitely made the center more exciting the second week.

Blocks

Foam animal ABCs


Bristle blocks
(forgot a pic)

ABC blocks


Fishing poles and numbered fish


We also had different puzzles and surprisingly, they really liked the 2 with world maps on them.

Art

Fake snow and polar animals. They always love watching the snow grow when I add water. This group of kids is not nearly as into sensory experiences as past groups I've taught, where they fought over these 6 spots. Several of the kids wouldn't even touch it, while some felt it, then moved on. I've never taught a group like this! The half that liked it, really liked it, and played here most of the day.

before water


after water


"Snow" paint made from shaving cream, glue, and glitter. It's so fun and fluffy to paint with, and really soft to touch when it dries!


Paint!


Shaving cream and bears. Another hit with past classes, but some kids didn't even dare touch it, and were surprised I'd let them smear it all over the table! After I joined in with a few kids, a few of the reticent ones came over, but some others wouldn't even consider putting their hands in this.


For reference, this is how my sensory-loving kids do shaving cream on a table!


Small Manipulatives

Magnetic writing boards


ABC beads

Bunch-ems


Counting books with magnetic numbers


Listening Center: Polar Animal books


Magnet board: ABCs and beginning sound sorting


Writing

Colored pens

Penguin stickers


Polar animal stickers


Large Group

We learned the word Antarctica the first week, and Arctic the second week. We also learned the song, Penguins on Parade.

Day 1, we read the book, Polar Animals, which is about penguins in Antarctica. It also talked about the scientists who go there. Then, we sorted animal toys by North Pole (Arctic) and South Pole (Antarctica), using an animal map to help us.


Day 2, we read Little Penguin and learned how penguin parents care for their eggs and babies. We tried to be penguin parents by carrying an egg on our feet. The toy eggs rolled off easily, so we did beanbags too. We learned our feet aren't like a penguin so it's hard for us, but we waddled and passed beanbags back and forth with our feet.

Day 3, we read The Three Snow Bears and compared it to the fairy tale The Three Little Bears that we'd read weeks earlier. Then we went fishing for toy fish with numbers on them. We placed the fish in order 1-10. Then they got cards with a number of objects on them to count, and match to the numeral. They liked it so much, it was the block center the next day!

Day 4, we read The Snow Bear. We sorted our polar animals by their beginning sound. They are doing so so well at hearing the beginning sound in words and isolating it!


Small Group

Week 1, my group copied, extended, and made patterns with the pattern bears. Then, they cut out winter pattern pictures to glue on and extend winter patterns.
The other group worked on number puzzles.

Week 2, my group played a number game with dice. Each child had their own die and would roll it,  and count the dots, then place an "ice chunk" on the matching numeral on their paper.
The other group made patterns with the counting bears and bear pattern cards.
 

Jan Brett

I love this week! Jan Brett is one of my favorite authors, so I love doing a whole theme surrounding her books, and introducing her to the kids! My youngest son groaned when I told him what we were learning about, but that's mainly because he didn't know who she was, or how fun her books were! There were no complaints during the week!

Dramatic Play

This was based on her books, The Three Snow Bears, and Annie and the Wild Animals. The "bear cave" had 3 polar bears inside, and blankets for their 3 beds. Outside, I had a bunch of stuffed and puppet wild animals from the other book.






Blocks

Giant mitten and mitten character puppets. We had done this story last year, although 2 of our students are new this year and hadn't done it, so instead of doing as a large group again, it was just out for free play. I ended up reading it 3-4 times as they had fun acting it out. It was on the shelf and played with several times during the theme week.


Noah's Ark book, and Noah's Ark toys and finger puppet set


Lincoln Logs

Art

Cardboard easels


Slime with markers. These kids do not like oozy yucky slime I've learned, but this recipe (white glue mixed with water with a little dissolved borax) leaves it thick and not sticky. I love leaving it white because then they can use the dried out marker box to color it. And they can still enjoy squeezing and stretching it without mess.


Beads and pipe cleaners


Watercolors

Small Manipulatives

Number pegs


Animal words puzzle


Mitten ABC clothesline


Lacing cards


Flat marbles with Jan Brett themed pages


Jan Brett number matching in pocket charts


Snack

Tortilla snowflakes with cinnamon

Bread and Honey, and we read the book Honey Honey Lion

Large Group

We learned the word "author" this week. I introduced Jan Brett as an author and illustrator and told them one thing that makes her books unique is her secret pictures on the sides of each page that show us what else is happening in the story. They loved looking for them as we read each book! We also learned that Jan Brett loves to travel the world and that's what inspires her stories. As we read each book, we marked it on our map where it was from.


Day 1, we read The Three Snow Bears. They quickly caught on that it's similar to Goldilocks and the Three Bears and just knew how it was going to end. We then used sorting bears and sorted them by big, medium, and small, then sorted by colors. Afterwards, they each took turns using the scale to weigh different quantities of bears and we learned words like heavier and lighter.

Day 2, we read The Turnip. I also showed them the Russian version I have of that book and we compared the two. I taught them a few Russian words too, and they loved trying to say Babushka! I lived in Russia many years ago, and showed them a lot of the fun things I'd brought home. They were way more interested than I expected them to be! They especially loved the stacking dolls. I have a 5-piece one that tells the story of The Turnip, but their favorite was my 10-piece one because the pieces get so tiny at the end.

Day 3, we read The Hat, which features Hedgie the hedgehog. My neighbor brought her pet hedgehog to our class, which was a big hit! He was very shy and preferred to stay curled up in a ball, but she was able to get him to at least poke out enough they got to see his cute face and feet. Some of the kids were willing to try to touch and hold him, while others were scared and stayed by me, preferring just to watch. Once we went outside to go home, the hedgehog was running all over the front yard, so the kids had a great time watching him move and run, and really getting to see his face!


Day 4, we read Daisy Comes Home. This book takes place in China, so I showed them some of the things I brought back from China, since I got to spend a semester there in college. Again, I was surprised how interested they were in just showing them stuff. They loved the lantern and paper dragon the most.

Small Group

My group did a puzzle page of The Mitten where they had to cut out the pieces, then glue them on a paper with pictures. The letters on the puzzle matched up with the beginning sound of the picture. It was good cutting practice and letter and sound recognition.

While my group worked, the other group got to play with the sorting bears and scales some more from large group.

The next week, my group read The Gingerbread Baby and played a Gingerbread Baby board game. We had also read The Umbrella, so the other group colored a rainforest mural, and rainforest animals they got to glue on to the mural. 


All of these games and extra themed things come from Jan Brett's website, which is full of fun lesson ideas for each book, games, coloring pages, etc.

Penguins

Right off our wild animal unit, we delved into a unit about one of my favorite animals...penguins!

Dramatic Play

It was more of a sensory play this time around, as I brought in the sensory table and filled it with penguins and "insta-snow." I left the snow a powder the first day, so the kids could watch me add water to watch the snow grow. They love this stuff and almost all 9 were crowded around this table the whole first day.



The second week, after we had learned about the difference between Antarctic and Arctic animals, I added another sensory table with water beads and polar animals from the North Pole. They loved this too and this tiny table was busy and crowded all week!


Art

Feather painting, white paint on black paper, with feathers as brushes. They also liked using them as quills to try to write.


"snow paint" shaving cream, white glue, and glitter


Epsom salt painting. I didn't get any pics, but they painted with a water/epsom salt mixture on dark paper, and once it dries, it leaves the sparkly salt crystals behind.

Small Manipulatives

Numbers and counters on the magnet board
 

Puzzles

Building link things (no idea what they're called!)
 

Large Group

We learned the song, Penguins on Parade, which I own on a cassette tape, so it's a little dated! They love it though, because we get to wear penguin masks and march/waddle like penguins around the room as we sing.

We learned the word, Antarctica and found it on our map and globe.

Day 1, after reading about penguins, we learned about the difference between animals at the North Pole (Arctic) and South Pole (Antarctic) and sorted our animal toys by where they live.


Day 2, we read a book about Emperor Penguins, and learned that the father penguins carry the eggs after the moms lay them and pass them to them. So, we practiced balancing "penguin eggs" on our feet, by using beanbags. The children had to walk a few feet to their partner without dropping their eggs, then pass it to the partner, who then got a turn to walk balancing the egg. I don't think any of our poor eggs would have survived on the ice, but as one of the kids pointed out, I think penguin feet are made to balance eggs, and ours aren't!

Day 3, we learned about how penguins stay warm in the cold. We read that they have oil on their feathers that makes the water run off of them. We did a simple experiment, combining oil and water, and learned that they don't mix. So, feathers covered in oil, would repel water instead of soaking it in. Then, we tried to fit 9 feathers into a 1 cm squared box on a piece of playdough. They were very crowded, and we learned that penguins have 9 feathers in every square centimeter on their bodies, so having so many feathers also helps keep them warm.