Category Archives: Arctic Theme

Letter S Snow Tracing

Arctic Theme, Pre-writing, Weather, Winter Leave a comment

Although the formal study of reading and writing does not occur until kindergarten, young children are capable of recognizing letters and their functions.

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Providing regular opportunities to practice pre-reading skills, is essential in gaining knowledge of the alphabet and its association to how words work.

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Using insta-snow and our fingers, we practiced tracing the letter S.

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Throughout the week, we have been talking about different words that start with the letter S.

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We have additionally been singing songs that reinforce the different sounds that S makes. Lastly, we traced these Ss, then constructed snowballs out of our insta-snow!

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Rubber Gloves, Walruses, and Blubber

Arctic Theme Leave a comment

Walruses deposit most of their body fat into a thick layer of blubber – a layer of fat reinforced by fibrous connective tissue that lies just below the skin.

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The blubber layer insulates the walrus and streamlines its body. It also functions as an energy reserve.

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Using rubber gloves, our hands, and ice water, we learned about how our marine friends stay warm in their cold environments! We first dipped our hands into icy water, and talked about words associated with the cold, such as ice, chilly, frozen, icy, and snow!

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We then talked about what blubber was, and compared it to a thick rubber glove. After that, we put on a rubber glove and dipped our hands again into the water.

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Each child was then asked whether or not their hand felt warmer or colder with the glove on. Lastly, we talked about other uses for blubber and why some animals need to protect themselves from the cold.

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This activity allowed your adventurer to explore the concept of animal adaptations through investigation and application.

Scissors and Icicles

Arctic Theme, Seasons, Weather Leave a comment

Cutting with scissors requires the skill of hand separation, which is the ability to use the thumb, index, and middle fingers separately from the pinkie and ring fingers.

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This can be challenging for a youngster with small hands.

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Although many three and four year-olds have the skills needed to snip and cut, scissor skills are not fully developed until around age six.

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To help your little one practice their cutting skills, we cut out icicles. Following this, they painted a piece of paper blue and attached their “icicles” to it!

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Polar Bear Habitats

Arctic Theme Leave a comment

Teaching young children about the importance of the Arctic in our planet’s ecosystem is an important first step to developing environmental consciousness.

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By providing your little one with the opportunity to construct their own polar bear habitats, they are learning about how these living structures function and thrive.

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As your child creates their individual den, they are formulating combinations of how shapes fit together.

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Ice Sculptures

Arctic Theme, Seasons, Weather, Winter Leave a comment
Using toothpicks, and styrofoam pieces, your little architect constructed their very own structures!
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 Playing with a variety of building materials is critical for the development of spatial thinking, or envisioning where different items go in relation to each other as they build.
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Deciding how to structure the pieces, connect them together, and configuring whether they are aligned or perpendicular to one another, are just the kinds of skills that support later learning in science, technology, engineering and math.
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