peguins & polar bears.

Reading The Mitten last week and incorporating {ideas} on staying warm paired perfectly with our science unit, learning about penguins and polar bears!  To help the kids understand how blubber works to keep both animals warm, we do this experiment.  I've seen fancier blubber gloves out there but 2 ziplock bags filled with Crisco works just as well!  The boys always think they'll be tough...but that ice is cold and they pull their hands out fast!

After the way this penguin project started {funny story here} I wasn't sure we were ever going to get it finished!  But finally...we did.  :)  We took those white circle maps and turned them into these cute little penguins to display our research!

Some students pulled a word from their circle map to write a penguin fact sentence.  It may be a little hard to see on the cream wall but it's glued to the feet.

The cute little snowmen in the middle of the penguins is an old, old estimation activity that I've had in my file for years.  There's a picture of a snowman on the paper and the kids have to estimate how many snowballs {cotton balls} it will take to fill it up.  After they estimate, they count and glue them down.

Here's a free {updated!} copy for ya:

We also used a {can/have/are} organizer to write down bear facts as we read various non-fiction texts.

Then the kids chose words from their lists to write their own bear facts.  Strong writers were challenged to write additional facts not found with the starter, such as "Black bears are smaller than polar bears" or "If a polar bear stood up in your house, he would hit his head on the ceiling."

I made the bear heads by tracing the bottom of my globe :) and the kids added their own faces and cut ears from the scrap bucket.  Glue the words underneath and voila!  Lift the flap bear books!

And just think...this isn't even the end of our weekend!!  Come back tomorrow {in your pajamas!} for some Martin Luther King Jr. ideas.  :)