Level 2: Arctic Unit Study

The Arctic is at the very top of the globe in the northern hemisphere—but what does that mean? Let’s read North and South: A Tale of Two Hemispheres to help teach your child about the different hemispheres of our planet. This book has a lot of information, so don’t feel like you need to read every single word. Instead, reinforce the idea that life is very different on opposite sides of the globe and we divide these areas into something we call hemispheres. Next, do this hemispheres activity to reinforce the lesson.

As you might guess, there’s a lot of snow in the Arctic! In fact, while it typically snows 8-9 months out of the year, snow has been recorded every month of the year and the annual average is 45 inches! (source) Even if you don’t have nearly that much snow by your house, let’s create a little snowy fun with a “snowball” toss math game.

What you need:

• egg carton or a muffin tin
• ping pong balls
• marker
• printable dice (pick the option that is best for your child’s abilities)
• printable scoresheet and numbered snow balls  

What to do:

1. Print and cut the die of your choice. Print and cut out the snowballs. Line the inside of a an egg carton or a muffin tin with your numbers. Now you are ready to play!

2. Place the numbered egg carton on the floor. Each child gets his/her own ping pong ball. The players take turns tossing or bouncing their ping pong ball into the egg carton. (Kids can keep trying until the ball actually lands in one of the compartments.)

3. Once both ping pong balls have landed in the egg carton, children say their numbers out loud to claim “their numbers”. A parent or a player rolls the greater than/less than die. If it lands on the ‘greater’ side, the child with the greater number gets the point. If it lands on the ‘less’ side, the child whose number is less wins the point. Keep track of your score on the scoresheet. The balls are then retrieved from the egg carton and tossed again!

(+) Want an arithmetic upgrade? Roll the dice with “addition” and “subtraction” symbols. Have your child add or subtract the numbers instead of determining which number is greater or less than. Use a whiteboard to work out the sums and difference. If they need manipulatives, give them counters and a printable place value chart to help make it more hands-on.

Let’s create a snowy sensory bin for some imaginary play. Mix 2 32oz of baking soda with 10oz of white hair conditioner to make some faux snow, and then break out your arctic animal figurines to create your own arctic scene. (If you want it to feel like snow, refrigerate for an hour before using.)

(+) Turn this into a literacy activity by adding letter magnets or some other letter manipulative. When your child finds a letter, try one of these activities:

• Have them name a word that starts with that letter sound.
• Have them practice writing the words in the snow.

Want to view some real Arctic animals? Here are some webcams where you can view live animals. (Note: Don’t see any live animals? Try another time, or check out some of the highlight videos.)

• Siku and his polar bear family
• Polar bears in Wapusk National Park
• Orca cams
• Underwater Beluga whale cams
• Arctic owl nesting cam

Arctic animal checkers.

Let’s learn about a fascinating survival tactic of the Arctic fox: camouflage! First, watch this video about the arctic fox. Next, let’s do this craft.

Let’s get some gross motor movement in with this printable Arctic animal die.

Build an igloo.

A traditional Inuit diet consists of a lot of meat, including polar bear, seal, and fish, but they also often eat it with bannock, a flat quick bread that can be cooked on a griddle or over a fire. Let’s make our own Inuit bannock with this simple recipe.

The Inuit are ingenious in their ability to use materials from the land around them for a variety of uses. Let’s work with some natural materials today as we make these acorn cap candles.

In our book, Glashka is able to save a whole pod of beluga whales with music. Do you know what a beluga whale is? Click here to learn more about them. (You may want to check in on the beluga cam from earlier this week as well!) Next, let’s make this beluga craft.

It was never recorded what actual song drew the whales back to the ocean, but we like to think the Russian ice breaker captain might have picked a Russian classical composer who wrote a lot of music for strings, like Tchaikovsky! This web page shares some interesting facts for children about this famous classical composer, who also wrote the music for The Nutcracker ballet. Next, play this song for your child. Can they imagine the belugas following it to freedom? How would they “swim”/dance to this music? How would they draw it?

***Click here for more tips on how to teach music without formal training!

Another enchanting creature of the Arctic Ocean? The narwhal! Watch this video to learn about this amazing mammal that has been dubbed “the unicorn of the sea,” and then make this narwhal craft. Alternatively, this interlocking puzzle might be fun for your engineering minded child.

Finally, let’s review ending punctuation with this fun narwhal game!

What causes the northern lights? This video breaks it down. Next, let’s make our own lights with this simple craft.

One Arctic resident we saw in our book? The polar bear! Learn a bit more about them in this video. Next, let’s craft our own polar bear to add to our northern lights picture. Start by printing this template on white cardstock. Next, use glue and cotton balls to give your polar bear its important thick fur. Finally, glue your bears into your aurora borealis scene!

Snowman launcher. Read through the blog post to learn about simple machines, levers, and fulcrums.