Are you teaching a polar animal theme in your preschool classroom or homeschool? Keep reading for the most fun and engaging Polar Animals activities around!
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POLAR ANIMALS PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES
One of the “chill”iest themes to teach (whether you’re homeschooling or teaching in a preschool or kindergarten classroom) is Polar Animals. Little ones get animated when learning about and participating in activities about different polar animals! They’re fascinated by penguins, seals, Arctic foxes, polar bears, and more! This leads to interactive play and STEM exploration. So get ready to head to the North and South poles to build new skills!
Keep reading for over 30 Polar Animals activities for your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. These ideas include literacy, math, fine and gross motor skills, art, and more. Grab your printables for math & literacy here. Oh, and there’s a freebie, too!
If you want a copy of my yearly themes (including an editable version where you can type in your own themes), check out this freebie. (*Please note: You will need to download this file to your computer and then open it with Adobe in order to add your own themes. You cannot add your themes from your web browser.)
POLAR ANIMALS ACTIVITIES: LITERACY
Before you get started with your Polar Animals theme, make sure you have your books all ready to go! You can check out our favorite penguin books for this theme in this post. There are over 20 penguin books for you to choose from! Make sure to request these from your local library (or order them from Amazon) a few weeks before you start your theme.
You’re definitely going to want to start your Polar Animals theme with these vocabulary cards! Do your littles know the difference between a moose and a caribou? How about a penguin and a seal? These cards are the perfect way to introduce your little learners to the 15 polar animal related words they’ll be learning about over the course of this theme. You can use these vocabulary cards in your writing center, as a Write the Room activity, or as a picture match.
This Write the Room activity is a little bit different than others you may have done before. In this version, you’ll want to laminate the vocabulary cards before cutting them apart. Hide the vocabulary cards around the room for your little one to find. Once they find the card, have them trace the vocabulary word with a dry-erase marker. I always recommend thin dry-erase markers like THESE or THESE (not the thick ones).
After talking with your little one about the difference between a carnivore and an herbivore, (hint: their teeth give it away!), have them sort the pictures into two categories: Arctic Carnivores & Arctic Herbivores. Try to find other similarities and differences the animals may have. The cut and paste activity includes fine motor skills practice with the use of scissors and glue. *Learn more about scissor skills development in this video.
Coloring by Letter is always a favorite with little ones! This activity helps them practice their alphabet knowledge by asking them to identify the letter name, sound, and a keyword for each letter. It also gives them a chance to practice their coloring skills, which leads to better handwriting later on. Can they name the animal that they just colored?
Syllable awareness is an important phonological awareness skill that little ones need in order to become strong readers. This activity has your little one choosing a fish card, saying the name of the picture on the bottom right corner, and trying to determine how many syllables the name has. Clapping or stomping to each syllable can be helpful with this.
In this activity, little ones will learn about alliteration, which is one of the first steps to developing phonemic awareness. They will try to help the Arctic fox get to her cub by coming up with at least two words that start with the same sound as the picture on the ice. You may have to help them at first until they get the hang of it. If they can tell you more than two, that’s even better!
This is a great rhyming activity that has little ones determine which word doesn’t belong because it doesn’t rhyme with the others on the picture strip. Can they tell you a word that could replace the wrong one and fix the mistake?
Looking and listening for the two words that make up a compound word is a great way to practice word awareness skills. I love telling my students they’re going to build a word out of two smaller words to help them visually see what a compound word is. This activity has your little ones forming compound words using two pictures. The polar animal in the corner helps to identify which two pictures go together. Can they figure out what the compound word is from the pictures on the ice? Then they will find the picture card that shows that word and place it above.
Talk with your little ones about the differences between polar bears and penguins, what their characteristics are, and where they live. After explaining what a Venn diagram is and how it’s used, have them cut out the pictures and glue them in the correct parts of the circles to show how polar bears and penguins are alike and different.
POLAR ANIMALS ACTIVITIES: MATH
Subitizing is the ability to recognize and name the number of a group without counting each individual item. This subitizing activity has your little one trying to see how fast they can say the number shown on the dice without counting each dot. The more they practice, the easier it will become! Then they will match it to the correct penguin card.
Ready to work on number sense and subtilizing? For this activity, your little one will choose a number to write in the box. Then they will find a hand card, a tally mark card, and a snowball card that shows their number. Have them place that many caribou picture cards on the ten frame. Can they tell you how many more they would need to make ten? *If you want a refresher on how to teach your child to correctly write numbers 1-10, check out this video!
Many kids are able to count in order from 1 to 10…but can they count backwards?! This activity has your little one practicing counting backwards, which is an important skill that often gets overlooked. They will attempt to build the picture puzzle by placing the numbered strips in the correct order from 10 to 1. They can also count out small items, such as mini marshmallows, to place next to the numbers to see how the numbers are getting smaller as they’re counting backwards.
For this activity your little one will be learning to create addition sentences. They will start with a card that has walrus (or seal) pictures and add the correct number of seals (or walruses) to make five polar animals. Have them tell you what the addition sentence is (ex: 3 walruses plus 2 seals equals 5 polar animals) and eventually learn to write the sentence on the line.
I love combining academic skills with social-emotional skills when possible! This activity has pictures of Mr. Penguin with different facial expressions that show what he’s feeling. Talk with your little one about each expression and have them make their own face to match (this also helps build feelings vocabulary, too!) Spin the spinner and write the first letter of that feeling above the correct facial expression. Which feeling will make it to the top first? Can your little one tell you how many more boxes of one expression are colored than another?
How cute are these owls?! They have different shapes for their bodies. Your little ones will choose which shape matches the owl’s body. Do they know the name of the shape? They might need help with some of the less-common shapes. Can they find items around the room that are the same shape as the owl?
I love this activity because it reinforces matching a number with that many items (in this case, seal pictures!) This develops number identification and one-to-one correspondence. Your little one will slide the number strip through the slit and place that many seals on the ice. If ready, they can use the included addition strips to show addition problems for them to solve. Read the poem to them each time they choose a new number to practice rhyming, too!
Like the previous activity, this one also practices matching a number with the correct number of items. After counting the number of Mr. Penguin’s fish and matching the card to the number on the mat, your little ones could count out that many goldfish crackers or Swedish fish candies…and then eat them! Yum!
These FREE penguin number cards can be used for all sorts of counting activities with polar animals! Your little on could count “snowballs” (cotton balls), feet on different polar animals, or points on moose or caribou antlers. Have them tell you what they want to count…anything works to reinforce number learning! You can download these FREE number cards from THIS post.
Did you download your FREE penguin number cards yet? If you did, try this activity! Tape the penguin number cards to the wall and have your little one say a number and throw a snowball at that number. Any activity that involves movement is always a lot of fun for your little one! It can also improve hand-eye coordination & gross motor skills.
Another counting activity for the FREE penguin number cards would be to count out “penguin eggs” (mini marshmallows) to correspond with the number card. Again, the more they practice counting, the easier it becomes!
POLAR ANIMALS HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES, SENSORY, CRAFTS, & SNACKS
This DIY Fake Snow sensory bin is SO easy to make! It’s filled with a mixture of baking soda and white conditioner. This silky-smooth and great-smelling snow can be used with small polar animal toys to create a Polar Animals sensory bin. Let your little one use their imagination and have FUN!
When the fake snow dries out from the sensory bin above, you can add some blue sprinkles and it will make the perfect writing tray! You could also make a writing tray using white rice, salt, or baking soda. Your preschooler can practice writing numbers, letters, different types of lines, shapes, or even draw polar animals.
This is a great activity to stimulate your little one’s imagination and work on STEM skills. Connecting different sized marshmallows with toothpicks, can they build a home for a polar bear or a seal? They could even try to make a snowman, a penguin, or an Arctic fox. You’ll be amazed at what they will come up with to make!
Here’s another great sensory activity…use shaving cream as snow! Your little one can make snowballs or a snowman, or simply swirl it around to make shapes and enjoy the feel of it. This is good, clean fun!
Are you ready for your little ones to really have a blast? Blow up white balloons and tell your little ones they are “penguin eggs” to be kept safe between their knees or ankles! Have them try to race across the room keeping their “eggs” safe! We also like to play Jack Hartmann’s Penguin Dance during this time. Let the fun begin!
Who wouldn’t want to make and eat these adorable penguin treats during your Polar Animals theme? They are made with two sizes of chocolate sandwich cookies, orange gummies, and two eyes. Your little ones will enjoy putting these together and then gobbling them up! *Read more in THIS post!
This a great activity to improve fine motor skills! Your child will use scissors and glue to make a Penguin mask from a paper plate, construction paper, and pipe cleaners. When your little one is finished, have them put it on and waddle around the room like a penguin! Or better yet, have them wear it while they hold their white balloon egg between their legs in the above activity. *Read more in THIS post!
POLAR ANIMALS PRESCHOOL & PRE-K FUN
I hope these ideas helped you fill-in your Polar Animals lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool! All of the printables for this unit can be found in my Polar Habitats Preschool Activity Pack.
What types of Polar Animals preschool activities do you plan for your littles? Do you have any fun activities that would be great to add to this list? Comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and let me know!
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Happy Learning!
