Brrrrrr! Chilling with Polar Bears

The last time I wrote about polar bears I found very few children's books to include in my post.  This time I found a LOT, and plenty of songs and rhymes too. 

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I absolutely fell in love with Sea Bear!  This beautiful new book couples stunning illustrations with some of the most poetic language you'll find - and it's simple enough for young children to understand and connect with.  It starts, 

"Polar bears are patient beasts, as patient as glaciers.  We know how to hope and how to wait.  I learned to be patient long ago from my polar bear mother - "

The story follows a polar bear as it paddles across open ocean, searching for ice or land to stand on.  As the journey goes on, you and your little ones will find yourself aching for land along with the polar bear.  Without ever mentioning conservation, this book absolutely lends itself to further conversation about it.  The text and illustrations show many other Arctic animals along the way, from orca and seals, to narwhal, walrus and sharks.  I cannot recommend it highly enough!

This book also provides a perfect lead in for talking about how polar bears are insulated against the cold by their blubber and fur.  Making a blubber glove to insulate little hands from ice water isn't difficult - and there are instructions for it in this previous post.

If you're reading to young children, you'll also love Polar Bears!  Like the other books in this series, it couples beautiful photographs with simple but meaningful text.  Each 2 page spread includes just 1 - 2 sentences about polar bears, which are closely tied to the photographs.  The close text and picture connection is perfect to support emergent readers as they retell or read the pages.  My teacher heart also appreciates the table of contents at the beginning, the labeled picture of a polar bear, and the vocabulary page in the back of the book.  I would absolutely use this book with preschool, kindergarten and first grade.

If you want a take home reader about polar bears, check out this craft and booklet I created.  Like Polar Bears (above), each page includes 1-2 simple sentences about polar bears, but with black and white line drawings it's suitable to make a copy for each child to have their own.  (The finished crafts also make a very impressive bulletin board!)

Polar Bear Night and the companion book  Polar Bear Morning are also lovely for young children!  Once again the text is simple and short, and the linocut pictures are easy to see from a short distance - important if you're using it for a story time with a big group.  These books also include other Arctic animals, which I think is important for helping children build their schema of the Arctic.  


I've written before about including tangram puzzles in my teaching, and of course I have a puzzle for polar bears!  This little sweetheart is part of my Polar Tangram set, which makes it easy to incorporate some math learning along with our polar fun.

All my tangram puzzles include the shape outline form so my youngest children can manipulate the shapes to match the picture, and a colorful picture version that offers far fewer clues.  I've used these with children aged 3 - 8 and their parents, and it's amazing how engaging and challenging they can be for all ages.

My kiddos also enjoyed Please Bring Balloons.  This lovely fantasy story isn't about polar bears per se, but features a beautiful carousel bear that comes to life and transports Emma to a carousel bear rumpus!  I think the only other children's book with a "rumpus" is Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and I can see turning on kid friendly music and having a rumpus of our own after reading this book.  This book also makes me want to get out polar bear shapes and a variety of craft materials for children to make their own carousel bears.

If you're like me, just reading about something isn't enough - you want to sing and dance and create and extend the learning, right?  I went looking and found some adorable songs and rhymes to share with you, and I have one of my own to share too. 

I wrote this little song a few years ago because so many children (and adults) don't realize that polar bears and penguins don't live in the same place.  Penguins live south of the equator, mostly in the Antarctic, and polar bears are north of the equator, in the Arctic.  Click on the picture to download a printable song page, or click here to hear me sing it on YouTube.com.

 I also found these on YouTube.com :

Here's Grizzly bears are big and brown (with verses about grizzlies, polar bears and teddy bears) from JBrary,
and
Rachel Rambach has an original song and motion rhyme Polar Bear.


For a polar bear variation on Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, check out the Johnson County Library blog, and check out Storytime Hooligans for a beautiful felt and rhyme.

I want to end today's post with a few more book recommendations.  I've focused on books I use for story times with young children, but there are many more lovely books out there!

 

 

Until next time,

Paula

The best of penguin books

I don't know about you, but for me January means penguins and polar bears and all things polar.  I don't combine them all into one theme, oh no! I can get at least 3 weeks of fun and learning out of it.  This week I thought I'd focus on penguins.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.

I'm really excited by all the new (and new to me) books I've found about them!  There are so many I've broken them out into categories (insert a happy book dance right here)!

These are my current picks for the youngest crowd:

10 Little Penguins is too darned cute!  I love the thicker pages - this book is going to be read over and over again, so I'm glad it's sturdy!  Kate Toms has done an awesome job with the simple rhyming text, but what blows me away is the illustrations.  Every picture is a fabric collage, with a little ribbon and felt thrown in for good measure.  I found myself running my hands over each page as if to touch the fabric.  Add in the counting down element of the story, and you have a winning book for young children!

I had a delightful surprise when I opened Flora and the Penguin by Molly Idle - it's a wordless picture book with flaps on each page, and it is wonderful!  Readers (children!) must narrate the story for themselves by reading the pictures - and that makes my teacher heart sing.  By looking closely at the pictures and talking about what they see, children learn that good readers use the clues in the pictures as they read, and they gain confidence in their ability to enjoy books, even before they can read them for themselves.  Wordless books are so good for building narrative skills - story telling - and for promoting book talk between parent and child. If you love this one, be sure to check out the rest of the series too!

Cuddle up with your favorite little ones to read I Am Small by Emma Dodd. The lovely illustrations and simple text make it clear what all the adjectives mean (deep, long, far, high, etc.) and the touch of silver on most pages will enchant both adults and children.  If your children aren't already in your lap when you start this book, they will be when you read the last page, snuggles are required!

There's always room on the bookshelf for a sweet getting ready for bed book!  While the focus of this book is not on the penguins - there are animal parents and babies on each page - you're not likely to make it through this one without a few snuggles, kisses, belly rubs and other loving gestures.  Save Maybe, My Baby for last if you're looking to calm your little ones down for sleep.

Of all the books so far, this one is my favorite!  Britta Teckentrup includes flaps on each page to illustrate all the opposites in the book - pause and let your children predict what's behind each flap as you journey with little penguin to see his friend.  This one is perfect for a classroom or story time setting - pair the book with colorful scarves so children can act out the opposite pairs.  Don't have scarves?  Try giving students a piece of tissue paper or even a tissue - these quiet props won't interrupt the story, but will let children move about and act out the concepts in Up & Down.  

If you're looking for some simple penguin activities to follow up these books, you may like this rhyme, book and finger puppets I put together - you can check it out here or watch the song on youtube.com here!

I also found lots of books for slightly older children, the preschool and kindergarten crowd:

If you're looking for some silliness (and when are preschoolers not?) I'd like to introduce you to Chongo Chingi the penguin in Penguin Dreams.  He dreams about flying, but doesn't limit himself to flying like other birds do, he dreams higher and higher to outer space!  The illustrations are bright and busy, with lots to keep your little ones interested.  I'd recommend this for a parent or caregiver rather than a large group, so children can be close and see the pictures.

Penguin Problems by Jory John and illustrated by Lane Smith is cute and fun!  Did you spot the odd penguin out on the cover?  Can you imagine what kind of problems penguins might have ?  The narrator of this book is a little penguin with some big problems!  Everyone looks the same to him, there are things in the ocean, he can't fly.  He's pretty sure his life is rough.  If your children are having a rough day and need a little attitude adjustment, they're going to love this book!

This is a cute story about friendship, a toy penguin, and a lion, and I found the ending quite unexpected.  Penguin by Polly Dunbar is not too long, not too short, and will appeal to adults almost as much as their children.  If you're like me and always looking for an excuse to read children's books, grab a child and read this one - you're almost guaranteed to hear, "Read it again!"

Do you love the Pebble books for young children?  Oh my goodness!  They combine simple text and beautiful close up photographs to teach children, and I can't recommend them highly enough!  Every primary classroom should have some of these books, I haven't yet met one I wasn't impressed with!

The true story of two male chinstrap penguins living in the Central Park Zoo, and tango makes three explains how Roy and Silo became dads when a zookeeper gave them an egg that would not have otherwise been hatched.  You could use this book to talk about non-traditional families, or just enjoy the sweet story.

A Penguin Story is about Edna, a penguin who thinks there has to be more to the world than the black, white and blue she's used to seeing.  This book lends itself to a color story time, but I included it for slightly older children because it also lends itself to learning about scientists learning about penguins.  If you're teaching and learning about penguins, do your students ever wonder how we know about arctic and antarctic animals?  If you have any deep thinkers in your group, they're going to appreciate this book in ways the rest of the class might not, and the same can be said for your young artists. 

To extend the learning for this slightly older group of students, I like to get out my polar animal tangram puzzles.  I've written about tangrams before - they're a really fun open ended puzzle made up of 7 simple shapes that turn out to be not so simple.

To make it easy to differentiate for my students, I've made tangram puzzles that include both the shape outlines (for matching size, shape and orientation), and more challenging finished pictures.  We use plastic, wooden and paper tangrams depending upon what my goals are.  Exploring with a group of children at school or the library?  Inexpensive plastic sets are great.  For a gift or at home?  I have a lovely wooden set my husband gave me.   For showing our parents what we've learned by gluing down and taking home, paper is the answer.

One of my favorite all time penguin activities is to have students take care of an "egg" or "chick" on their feet - you can see the blog post about that here, along with even more book recommendations.  What are YOUR favorite penguin books and activities?  I'd love to know!


                                                                                                   Paula

Chinese New Year 2020 The Year of the Rat

Kung Hei Fat Choy - wishing you great happiness and prosperity!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

Do you know the story of the Great Race, and how the animals competed to have the 12 years of the Chinese Zodiac named after them?  I made a video about it, which you can see on YouTube by clicking here.   In the story, the animals find different ways to cross the river to finish the race.  Some animals are strong, and make it across on their own, some are clever and hitch rides on other animals, some cooperate to make it together... and then there's pig, who stops to eat and nap before barely finishing the race in 12th place.  

Previously I've shared some books and ideas for celebrating Chinese New Year, see here and here, and I discovered some new (or new to me) this year that I'd love to share with you.

All Are Welcome
I can't say enough wonderful things about this book!  The message is simple yet profound: all are welcome.   The school shown in this book includes a beautifully diverse community of people - different races, religions, body types, ages, abilities, languages, ethnicities, and they are all welcomed and embraced.  They come together at the end to celebrate the new year, so I'm including it here, but this book can and should be used for many many themes. 

Red is a Dragon
This beautiful book has been around for a while, but it was new to me this year, and I love it!  While it's not technically about Chinese New Year, the first page is, and many of the other color words describe things with an Asian origin.  I've used this in a story time about colors, as well as for Chinese New Year, and it's always a hit with the preschool crowd.

Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas
This fractured fairy tale tells a Chinese New Year version of Goldilocks, and it's adorable!  From congee porridge to a bed that "felt as hard as a week-old almond cookie" all the familiar parts of the story are in place, with an Asian twist.  Fortunately Goldy Luck makes better choices than Goldilocks did, and helps to fix all the messes she made, resulting in a happy ending.  

This year I've also created Chinese New Year 100 Charts.  This huge set includes puzzles for all 12 of the animals of the Zodiac, and each of them is differentiated for 2 - 3 levels, for a total of 34 pages of no prep math work!  They've been added to my Chinese New Year Bundle - so if you've bought that previously, you can re-download to get it free!

I also put together this free (for now!) game board.  Simply click here to head to my TeachersPayTeachers store and download it!  If you like it, please leave feedback and follow my store!

Wishing you a very happy new year, and many red envelopes!

                                                                                                                           Paula