Montessori Inspired Polar Bear Unit

Since our sweet baby girl joined our family this summer, I have been slow-mo with planning Montessori inspired unit studies for Little Bee. He has been asking me lately if we are going to do "activities" again. So my New Year resolution is to create Montessori inspired unit studies every month... like we used to do. For more information, please visit our Montessori Homeschool Curriculum for Preschool and explore the unit studies we did last year.

January 2017 is the beginning of a brand new 12 Months of Montessori series! For this month, we are sharing our Montessori Inspired Polar Bear Unit with activities that include the location of the arctic circle, nomenclature cards, writing activities, matching work, food chain, art, and our favorite winter books.

Montessori Globe and the Arctic Circle

I found this Arctic Circle image at the "One World, One Ocean" website and printed it to show Little Bee the circumference of the arctic environment. This website also shows behind the scenes film clips for the IMAX movie, "To the Arctic." This film follows the adventures of a mother polar bear and her cubs. I ordered the DVD here and I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival. I can't wait to watch it with Little Bee.

Little Bee and I talked about the North Pole as being at the "top of the world." I explained to him that the North Pole is called the Arctic and that this is where the polar bears live. I reminded him of our study about the penguins last year and that penguins live on the opposite side of the earth - they live on the south pole at the "bottom of the world." After this explanation, Little Bee carefully balanced his polar bear figurine on top of the Montessori globe to show where they live.

Montessori Polar Bear Nomenclature Cards

I found these polar bear nomenclature cards at the "Montessori Mom" blog. These cards display the basic information for the various anatomical parts of the polar bear and also taught Little Bee a new vocabulary word - "snout." Little Bee pointed to each part of the polar bear as I read the names of the body parts to him.

Writing Activity: Letter P for Polar Bear

Little Bee is starting to write his letters in the sand tray. He practiced tracing the letter "p" for "polar bear" with two fingers on his Montessori sandpaper cards. Then he wrote the letter p in the blue sand.

He is almost 4 years old and I am really proud of his writing abilities, especially since this is my first time teaching anyone how to write. This is one reason why I love Montessori education because of its hands-on practical approach to learning.

Polar Bear Footprints

Little Bee came up with the idea of creating polar bear footprints in his blue sand. He walked them all over the winter blue tundra and congregated them into a little family group - daddy, mommy, big brother, and little sister. 🙂

Arctic Animal Matching Work

Next, Little Bee matched the Safari Ltd Arctic TOOB with these 3-part cards from the "Natural Beach Living" blog. He has completed so many of these matching activities that I don't even have to explain to him how to complete the work. As soon as I presented the tray, he began matching the animals to the cards. This is a pre-reading work that prepares a child to recognize shape discrimination and to increase their vocabulary. After completing the object to card matching work, I removed the word labels so that Little Bee could match the word to the picture (object.) Before removing the word labels, I read each animal name to him while pointing to the words. I read the word slowly while emphasizing the letter sounds. He then matched the word labels to the cards and matched 70% of them correctly without my help. The other 30% I read the word and then Little Bee matched it to the picture.

Arctic Food Chain Activity

I found this arctic food chain image (pin) at the "Polar Bears International" website and utilized the illustration to make a stackable (box top) food chain. I found the images for a polar bear, seal, arctic cod, copepods, diatoms, and algae. Then I taped the images onto stackable box tops. Little Bee stacked them in order and as he stacked I explained to him that the polar bear hunts seals for food, seal eats the fish, fish eats copepods, copepods eats diatoms, and diatoms eat algae. Little Bee wanted to know how the seal could eat the fish if the polar bear had eaten the seal. LOL! So I explained that one seal got away and that was the seal that ate the fish. He thought about this food chain for awhile and you can see his look of contemplation in the last photo of this collage. 

This is an amazing YouTube video of a polar bear hunting a seal. It shows the skill it takes for a polar bear to plan and catch its prey. FYI: This is a kid safe video because the polar bear narrowly misses catching the seal and it escapes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC26JK9nk-8

Polar Bear Process Art

I love to include art in each of our unit studies because it encourages freedom of movement and expression. Please visit the "Play to Learn Preschool" blog to learn how to do this process art activity. Our polar bear didn't turn out as clearly as I would of liked, but we still enjoyed the process of creating this arctic polar bear scene.

Life-Cycle of the Polar Bear - Sequencing Activity

"Nanuk" is a beautifully illustrated book about the life-cycle of a polar bear family. The book briefly describes how a mother polar bear hunts, builds a snow den, cares for her cubs, and at the end shares a plea for her survival related to global warming. I added these cute printable cards for Little Bee to practice his recall of the story and sequencing work.

Winter Book Shelves

Here is a look at what we have on our winter book shelves in our play room. These books include information and stories about polar bears, seals, penguins, whales, and a fox. I included an atlas and encyclopedia so that Little Bee and I could look up information about the arctic environment. The bottom row of board books are for baby sister to enjoy.Thank you for visiting! 

12 Months of Montessori

The Best Kindergarten and Preschool Penguin Activities | Natural Beach Living

17 Printable Pictures of Animals that Adapt in Winter | The Natural Homeschool

Montessori-Inspired Playdough Math Activities for Winter {Free Printables} | Living Montessori Now

Practical Life for the Winter -- Toddler Nose Blowing | The Kavanaugh Report

Montessori Inspired Polar Bear Unit | Mama’s Happy Hive

Montessori Inspired Antarctica Shelf  | The Pinay Homeschooler

Snowman Activities for Preschoolers with Free Printables | Every Star is Different

Indoor Snowball Fight | Grace and Green Pastures

Winter Books for Preschoolers | Christian Montessori Network

Winter Yoga for Kids | Sugar, Spice & Glitter

How To Get Kids Active In Winter (Free Arctic Animals Action Cards) | Uno Zwei Tutu

Hands on Arctic Themed Activities| Welcome to Mommyhood