Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Where Are You?

Today at storytime it was all about polar bears and other Arctic animals. Even though it is unseasonably warm and sunny outside, in the library (and at Head Start) we visited the Land of Snow and Ice.

We read ---

Say Hello to Snowy Animals , by Ian Whybrow
(Grr-grr, hoot-hoot,swish-swash,and so on), 

Little Mo by Martin Waddell  
(lots of slipping, sliding, and gliding on the ice)


and  

The Polar Bear and the Snow Cloud,
by Jane Cabrera




Here is a song we sang. Sing it to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. The kids can join in on the "warm, warm" chorus.)


The polar bear lives in the Arctic,
He never gets cold in a storm.
He swims in the cold icy water,
His heavy coat keeps him so warm.

Warm, warm, warm, warm,
His heavy coat keeps him so warm, so warm.
Warm, warm, warm, warm,
His heavy coat keeps him so warm!

(If you type "warm" that many times, it starts to look really weird.)

For our craft we made Polar Bear pictures. 

Materials:

Construction paper
White bear cutouts
wax paper
cotton balls
glue sticks

The fun part about making this picture is crumpling and tearing the wax paper to make ice. Tear off a piece of wax paper, then let your child crumple it up and smooth it out. They can tear it any way they like to make ice mountains, or ice floes, or ice islands.

Glue the wax paper on the construction paper, then add the bears. Draw features on the bears. Pull apart one or two cotton balls and glue the pieces on to make clouds and snow.