Activity Day–Antarctica and the Oceans

As our area braces for yet another ice storm, our Activity Day class studied Antarctica.    We read about the animals, temperatures and food chain of the area.  The girls really couldn’t comprehend that the lowest recorded temperature was –126 F.   To be honest, I don’t think I can comprehend it either!!

Since Antarctica has 6 months of darkness and 6 months of night, I thought it would be cool do do a black/white drawing using chalk on black cardstock.  I told the girls it would be abstract art, grins.

I combined the topic of oceans with Antarctica this month.  We looked at whales, plankton, jellyfish, dolphins and the narwhal.  I had also ordered these really neat sticker sets  from Oriental Trading that allowed the girls to label each continent, and add animals from that continent as well.  It was even color coded, so this save me a lot of time in trying to get everyone on the correct land mass.

I also found a Antarctica passport stamp photo online.  I copied it and had each girl glue the stamp into their passport we’re working on.

Books we used:

Antarctica; by Helen Cowcher
Brrr! A Book About Polar Animals; by Melvin & Gilda Berger
Four to the Pole; by Nancy Loewen and Ann Bancroft
Antarctica; by David Petersen
I Can Draw Polar Animals; by Helene Leroux-Hugon
The Four Oceans; by Will Mara
Diving Into Oceans; National Wildlife Federation
101 Facts About Oceans; Julia Barnes