Polar Bears!

Our first theme of this wonderfully snowy year is The Arctic. Our first animal that we're learning about is Polar Bears!

Book Time!
I first read the book "Snow Bear's Surprise" by Piers Harper. The kids really loved this one as it is a soft-to-touch book. All the animals feel fuzzy and at the end the northern lights are glittery! Snow Bear wants to surprise his Mum by decorating their cave so all his arctic friends help him to find ways to make it look just right!

Next I read "The Three Snow Bears" by Jan Brett. It's the story of Goldilocks and the three bears set in Jan Brett's wonderfully illustrated arctic terrain!

The kids were getting pretty squirmy by this point, so I had them stand up and we did the following poem with actions!

Poem Time!
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Turn around.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Make no sound.

Polar bear, Polar bear,
Dance on your toes.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Touch your nose.

Polar bear, Polar bear,
Show your paws.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Hide your claws.

Polar bear, Polar bear,
Reach up high
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Shut your eyes tight.

Polar bear, Polar bear,
Wake up now.
Polar bear, Polar bear,
Take a bow.

(This verse I came up with just before the kids left for the day)
Polar bears, Polar bears,
Say your good-byes
Polar bears, Polar bears,
Give me high fives

Craft Time!
This Polar Bear puppet craft (and poem) was taken from twigglymagazine.com where I found a printout of a Polar bear, cut out the head, hands and feet and glued them to a brown paper bag (which I had painted with white acrylic paint the night before). The kids love gluing everything themselves (as 4 and 5 years olds often do) and they had a blast running around and growling like polar bears.

We wrapped up the program by acting out the poem one more time and getting arctic stickers on our hands!