Polar Unit Study Part 3

This has been a fun topic to cover. I went back and added in pictures and post links for the various snack-tivities we have done to previous posts, as well as the freezer experiment. Check out our indoor snowman. The toddler played along with us one day and colored some mittens. This week we ‘wrapped’ the polar unit and are looking forward to new/different things for February. I think the kids loved this unit, although some of the books were repetitive, some of that is learning which ones to read and which ones to skim, which will come in time. We continue to help the struggling 4 year old to read, I got out the flash cards in hopes that she’d take ‘ownership’ of the ones she was able to read. She enjoyed when she read both sides and they got to be ‘her’ cards. We’ll do that from time to time, no pressure, I know she has plenty of time to learn, but, priorities, if she can read things to herself, I can manage the 2 younger kids more efficiently while she works independently, and she won’t get bored waiting for say, the baby to nurse. It’s a win/win really.

Last Friday the kids decided to do ‘art’ on their own, and came up with these white crayon/neon crayon drawings, colored with their color wonder and additional other activities. We continue to add in board games where we can to practice counting, good sportsmanship, and family time.

K’s on top, B’s pictured below

We got back to ‘snack-ing’ our study, which makes everyone happy! We also had quite a few of the kits from the library, which suit our young learners really well. Games, stuffed animals, crafts, and so on, make for a good evening activity. I finally uploaded the photos, so here’s dad, reading some of the polar bear books and some of the fun ‘stuff’ in the kits:

seal and penguin nesting doll in bag pictured, below

Paper trail

Mitten sorting activity-sort animals into different categories- my 4 yo read the titles and then sorted them out!

Polar Bear Fun Pack from All About Learning Press
-Read Arctic Animal Fun Facts pages and quiz, had 4 yo read smaller animal names 7 year old the harder ones
-Word Searches (7 year old)
-Rhyme sorting snow balls (7 year old)
-Match capital and lower case letter cards (4 yo)
-Change the first letter of a word to make new words (4 yo) ex: it, bit, fit, hit, sit

Activities from Cold  Weather Friends Kit
-Food chain (shown below)- discussed the role of sunshine and scavengers, as well
-Crossword and ‘what’s missing’ from animals (antlers, etc) for 7 year old
-#paper doll in art
-#seal book mark in art

Activities from Penguins and Mittens Lasting Lessons Thematic Lit Based Unit book:
-Discussed gloves vs. mittens, who uses each, and what adults use gloves in their work
-Discussed what else comes in pairs, why that is, and counted by 2’s to 100
-Mr. Popper’s Penguins coloring page
-Mr. Popper’s Penguins ‘animal license’– discussed driver’s license, hunting license, etc. also organ donation (my 7 yo asked)
-*boat for art

Media
Mr. Popper’s Penguins (my oldest read the book and really liked it so we got the movie)
Really Wild Animals Polar Prowl by National Geographic

Topical books
Little Polar Bear by de Beer  (kit with POLAR BEAR puppet!)
Ahoy There, Little Polar Bear by de Beer
North Pole South Pole by Levinson
Polar Bears by Canizares
Polar Exploration journeys to the Arctic and Antartic (reference) by Bramwell
Frozen Wild (reference) by Arnosky
The Northern Lights by Canizares
The Big Bad Blizzard by Herman (7 year old read this out loud-Scooby Doo)

Art
Using stickers, create a North Pole/South Pole split page and give some facts/differences about them.
Create a paper boat and decorate to set ‘Mr. Popper’s Penguins’ back to Antarctica*
Inuit paper doll (taken from photocopied pages from the CWF kit– shown below)#
Depict your favorite scene from Mr. Popper’s Penguins (book or movie)
Seal Book Mark activity from Endangered Animals (part of the Cold Weather friends kit we got from the library and used last week)#
Depict a matching pair of mittens

7 year old reading
Secret Coders by Yang
Magic Tree House Polar Bears Past Bedtime by Osborne
Ivy and Bean and the Ghost that Had to Go by Barrows
Neil Flambe and the Bard’s Banquet by Sylvester
The Big Bad Blizzard by Herman
Penguin Puzzle (Magic School Bus Chapter Book) by Cole
Danielle the  Daisy Fairy by Meadows
Tia the Tulip Fairy by Meadows

4 year old reading together
Pete the Cat Play Ball! by Dean
Pete the Cat Pete’s Big Lunch by Dean
Pete the Cat Scuba Cat by Dean
Pete the Cat Pete at the Beach by Dean
Pete the Cat and the Bad Banana by Dean
Pete the Cat Robo Pete by Dean
Perfect Piggies by Boynton

---

Going along with the Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap up, play along HERE