Standing Polar Bears

I'm so excited to be teaching about Polar animals this week! I've been waiting for this unit since I started working at my new center. I love teaching about any kind of animal, but polar ones are pretty much at the top of my list. Our first animal was the polar bear!

I saw this craft in an Oriental Trading magazine one year. It was made out of craft foam, but I thought it could easily be done with construction paper. I started by drawing two sets of legs.

The back set is the wider one on the right. I also folded the bottoms of them to make feet. Then I cut out small circles for heads and tiny ears. The kids used a black marker to draw the eyes and mouth and we used glue dots to stick on a black pom pom for a nose.

Then they glued the head to the front set of legs. We used another glue dot to stick on a white pom pom to the back set of legs for a tail.

I cut a blue piece of construction paper in half and the kids glued down the feet of the polar bear, first the front set, then the back set about 4 or 5 inches away.

I used a piece of tape to attach an accordion-folded strip of white paper to both sets of legs. I'm sure glue would work as well.

And then it stood up all by itself!

So cute, right?

Fun Fact: A polar bear's fur may appear white, but it's actually transparent hollow tubes! They look white because they are reflecting the light. They trap the sun's heat and keep the bear warm.

Bear Puzzles

Today's color was brown and I taught about bears (the Alaskan brown bear and the grizzly, to be exact). Our project was very simple. I found a picture of a bear coloring page and the kids used crayons to color it.

No, that's not all. It wasn't that simple! After they colored it I drew lines on it, dividing it into 6 pieces or 9 pieces (depending on whether they wanted an easy puzzle or a harder puzzle).

I didn't measure or anything to get even squares. I just eyeballed it. Then the kids cut on the lines.

When the picture was all cut up, they picked out a piece of colored construction paper, put their picture back together again...

...and glued the pieces on the paper!

See? Simple! And yet lots of fine motor practice!

Fun Fact: Bears stand on their hind legs not to get ready to charge, but rather to get a better look or smell. The Alaskan brown bear can be ten feet tall when standing!