POLAR ANIMALS THEME ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOL, PRE-K AND KINDERGARTEN

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POLAR ANIMALS UNIT FOR PRESCHOOL, PRE-K AND KINDERGARTEN

This resource includes thematic lessons, activities, poems, songs and centers to help teach your little learners more about polar animals.

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THIS RESOURCE INCLUDES

Lesson Resources

Week 18 Plans
This is a template for lesson plans during a winter unit on polar regions. Pick and choose what ideas and resources work for your learners.

Polar Animals – Whole Group
These resources can be used during whole group instruction for a polar animals theme. They include a poem, word cards, tracing page and table sign in sheets.

Polar Animals Interactive Poem
Use this poem during a thematic lesson, whole group or a literacy center and have learners name animals that live at the north pole.

Lesson Plans

Polar Animals Thematic Plans
Use these plans as a guide for engaging polar animals read alouds and activities in the classroom.

Polar Regions Song
Use this song throughout the unit to review the north and south poles. BONUS: Penguin song.

Polar Regions
Read The Top and Bottom of the World and begin an anchor chart to explore the poles. Have learners create the book included.

Let’s Compare
Read Polar Bears and Penguins and have learners list similarities and differences between the two animals. Complete the Venn Diagram together.

Arctic
Read Living in the Arctic and have learners complete the Inuit craftivity and writing page.

Antarctica
Read Antarctica and a penguin book. Have learners create the penguin craftivity.

Adaptations
Read Polar Animal Adaptations and complete the blubber experiment together.

Polar Animals Sensory Charts
Explore the polar regions with the five senses. Complete the charts together and have learners draw and write about what they believe the polar regions to be like using their senses on the interactive page.

On the Ice Predictable Chart Class Book
Use this resource to create a class book from the predictable chart created during the week.

Literacy Centers

Literacy Center | Alphabet Pocket Chart
Have learners match the alphabet cards on a pocket chart.

Literacy Center | Rhyming Center
Have learners match the penguin pairs based on their rhyming words.

Literacy Center | Write the Room Sight Word
Have learners find the sight word cards around the classroom and write the words on the corresponding workpage.

Math Centers

Math Center | Shape Sort
Have learners sort the picture cards by their shape on a pocket chart. .

Math Center | Ten Frame Write the Room
Have learners find the ten frame cards around the room and color the correct number of spaces for each card.

Math Center | Patterning
Have learners match the picture that comes next in each pattern.

LEARNING STANDARDS INCLUDED IN THIS RESOURCE

Common Core Standards

Language Arts

CCSSL.K.1a

Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

CCSSL.K.5a

Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.

CCSSRF.K.1c

Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

CCSSRF.K.1d

Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

CCSSRF.K.2b

Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

CCSSRF.K.3c

Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

CCSSRF.K.4

Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.

CCSSRI.K.3

With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

CCSSRI.K.7

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

CCSSRI.K.9

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

CCSSRL.K.7

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).

CCSSW.K.2

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

Math

CCSSK.CC.A.3

Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).

CCSSK.CC.B.4

Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

CCSSK.G.A.2

Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

Next Generation Science Standards

NGSSK-LS1-1

Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. Examples of patterns could include that animals need to take in food but plants do not; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and, that all living things need water.

NGSSK-ESS2-2

Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs. Examples of plants and animals changing their environment could include a squirrel digs in the ground to hide its food and tree roots can break concrete.

Texas Essential of Knowledge and Skills

Language Arts

TEKSLA.K.2.A.i

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–beginning reading and writing…The student is expected to: demonstrate phonological awareness by: identifying and producing rhyming words.

TEKSLA.K.2.A.iii

TEKSLA.K.2.B.ii

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–beginning reading and writing…The student is expected to: demonstrate and apply phonetic knowledge by: using letter-sound relationships to decode, including VC, CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words.

TEKSLA.K.2.B.iv

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–beginning reading and writing…The student is expected to: demonstrate and apply phonetic knowledge by: identifying and reading at least 25 high-frequency words from a research-based list.

TEKSLA.K.2.D.ii

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–beginning reading and writing…The student is expected to: demonstrate print awareness by: holding a book right side up, turning pages correctly, and knowing that reading moves from top to bottom and left to right with return sweep.

TEKSLA.K.2.D.iii

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–beginning reading and writing… The student is expected to: demonstrate print awareness by: recognizing that sentences are comprised of words separated by spaces and recognizing word boundaries.

TEKSLA.K.2.E

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–beginning reading and writing…The student is expected to: develop handwriting by accurately forming all uppercase and lowercase letters using appropriate directionality.

TEKSLA.K.3.C

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking–vocabulary…The student is expected to: identify and use words that name actions; directions; positions; sequences; categories such as colors, shapes, and textures; and locations.

TEKSLA.K.5.H

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts. The student is expected to: synthesize information to create new understanding with adult assistance.

TEKSLA.K.5.I

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts…The student is expected to: monitor comprehension and make adjustments such as re-reading, using background knowledge, checking for visual cues, and asking questions when understanding breaks down with adult assistance.

TEKSLA.K.6.B

Response skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed. The student is expected to: provide an oral, pictorial, or written response to a text;

TEKSLA.K.6.F

Response skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed. The student is expected to: respond using newly acquired vocabulary as appropriate.

TEKSLA.K.8.D.i

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts–genres… The student is expected to: recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including: the central idea and supporting evidence with adult assistance.

TEKSLA.K.10.A

Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts–writing process. The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate conventions. The student is expected to: plan by generating ideas for writing through class discussions and drawings.

Math

TEKSMA.K.2.A

Number and operations. The student applies mathematical process standards to understand how to represent and compare whole numbers, the relative position and magnitude of whole numbers, and relationships within the numeration system. The student is expected to: count forward and backward to at least 20 with and without objects.

TEKSMA.K.2.B

Number and operations. The student applies mathematical process standards to understand how to represent and compare whole numbers, the relative position and magnitude of whole numbers, and relationships within the numeration system. The student is expected to: read, write, and represent whole numbers from 0 to at least 20 with and without objects or pictures,

TEKSMA.K.2.C

Number and operations. The student applies mathematical process standards to understand how to represent and compare whole numbers, the relative position and magnitude of whole numbers, and relationships within the numeration system. The student is expected to: count a set of objects up to at least 20 and demonstrate that the last number said tells the number of objects in the set regardless of their arrangement or order.

TEKSMA.K.6.A

Geometry and measurement. The student applies mathematical process standards to analyze attributes of two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional solids to develop generalizations about their properties. The student is expected to: identify two-dimensional shapes, including circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares as special rectangles.

TEKSMA.K.6.D

Geometry and measurement. The student applies mathematical process standards to analyze attributes of two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional solids to develop generalizations about their properties. The student is expected to: identify attributes of two-dimensional shapes using informal and formal geometric language interchangeably.

Science

TEKSSCI.K.9.A

Organisms and environments. The student knows that plants and animals have basic needs and depend on the living and nonliving things around them for survival. The student is expected to: differentiate between living and nonliving things based upon whether they have basic needs and produce offspring

TEKSSCI.K.9.B

Organisms and environments. The student knows that plants and animals have basic needs and depend on the living and nonliving things around them for survival. The student is expected to: examine evidence that living organisms have basic needs such as food, water, and shelter for animals and air, water, nutrients, sunlight, and space for plants

TEKSSCI.K.10.A

Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to: sort plants and animals into groups based on physical characteristics such as color, size, body covering, or leaf shape;

TEKSSCI.K.10.B