Walruses have long tusks and a prominent mustache. These large marine mammals are found near the Arctic Circle.

They are extremely social and snort and bellow loudly at their companions. Walruses also have wrinkled brown and pink skin, long, coarse whiskers, flat flippers, and lots of blubber on their bodies to keep them warm in the cold Arctic water.

They can slow down their heartbeat to withstand the chilly water temperatures and to help them stay under water for as long as ten minutes.

To help us learn more about their whiskers, we created our very own. With tweezers, toothpicks, and pre-cut walrus snouts, we placed our whiskers into their places, practicing our fine motor skills!

Storyboarding, or picture writing, is the origin of all written languages, used by ancient cultures before text evolved and as a natural bridge to text. The Chinese language was built using pictographs.

Egyptians used storyboards, or hieroglyphics, first etched in stone and later written on papyrus, to organize a complex society and to rule the ancient world. In our classroom, we use a variation of the story board.

We call it the story tray! Story trays are one of several tools introduced during circle time that work for younger students for whom the visual and the concrete are helpful elements in absorbing abstract ideas.

For this activity specifically, we recreated the story of Quickly Quigley, by Jeanne Gravois. This was a story about two penguins who are brothers. Throughout the story, they learn about how important it is to take their time and not rush things. This is why that, to begin with, students surrounded the story tray to reenact the story. They were then each given a part in the story. Their “part” was reflected by a three-dimensional object. As the story progressed, students placed their item onto the tray. We did this until the story was completed.

Though ungainly on land, the flightless penguin has physical characteristics perfect for swimming through water – fortunate, as some species are known to be at sea for up to 75 per cent of their lives.

Spending so much time in the water puts penguins at risk from predators, so swimming skills are essential. While their long, streamlined bodies and short legs give them a clumsy gait when waddling on land, penguins’ wings have a unique characteristic that gives them surprising agility in water.

While penguins’ wings are not suitable for aerial flight – mainly because, unlike the delicate lightweight bones of other birds, penguin bones are solid. Referred to as flippers, the penguin’s stiff wings act as the perfect natural paddle.

What’s most interesting, however, is the recent discovery that as well as being able to flap their flippers up and down like wings, penguins can also twist them in a corkscrewing motion.

To demonstrate this phenomena, we played with toy penguins in the water table! Using styrofoam as our “ice bergs”, students practiced making their penguins “swim” though the water, only to rest on their ice bergs!

These highly specialized marine birds are adapted to living at sea—some species spend months at a time at sea.

Penguins are usually found near nutrient-rich, cold-water currents that provide an abundant supply of food.

Different species thrive in varying climates, ranging from Galápagos penguins on tropical islands at the equator to emperor penguins restricted to the pack ice and waters of Antarctica.

For this activity, we attempted to recreate some of these habitats.

We used flour, glass jewels, white play dough, styrofoam, rocks, and toy penguins to do this.

Students enjoyed manipulating the flour as they created their own arctic wonderland!

Penguins eat krill (a shrimp-like crustacean in the Family Euphausiidae), squids, and fish.

Various species of penguins have slightly different food preferences, which reduce competition among species.

As part of our week of arctic animals, we fed penguins with our very own fish! Using tweezers, students grasped for different sea creatures and slipped them into the mouths of their penguins!

Children are naturally curious. From the minute they gain control of their limbs, they work to put themselves out into the world to see how it all works.

They explore, observe and imitate, trying to figure out how things operate and how to control themselves and their environments.

This unrestricted exploration helps children form connections in their brain, it helps them learn—and it’s also fun.

Art is a natural activity to support this free play in children.

The freedom to manipulate different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and experimentation.

These artistic endeavors and self-directed explorations are not only fun, but educational as well.

As part of our arctic theme, we painted onto “ice” with our friends. Using saran wrap as the “ice” and paint, we practiced creating designs and other pictures, having fun while doing so!

During our week of polar bears, we learned all about these creatures and where they live.

We made them (and their habitats) with a variety of materials, we played gross motor games aimed at teaching their behaviors, and finally, we used play dough!

For this activity, students added plastic icicles and glitter to white play dough.

They then used polar bears to create habitats for them.

Finally, students created stories about their creatures with their friends!