Snow Bear, Ice Bear

We have been talking about where animals go in winter specifically animals that call Vermont home.  Yesterday, we moved on to thinking about different parts of the globe and took a look at the arctic and antarctic regions, or the north and south pole.  Many kindergarteners were surprised to learn that polar bears and penguins do not live in the same region.  Polar bears call the arctic home while penguins call the antarctic and elsewhere in the southern hemisphere home. 

Yesterday we also took a look at solid or 3-D shapes and students were challenged to figure out which 3-D shapes roll and which do not.  We listened to a song about 3-D shapes.

Today I read the book Ice Bear: In the Steps of the Polar Bear by Nicola Davies.  We learned A LOT about polar bears.  Some facts we learned are:

• one polar bear is bigger than two lions 
• polar bears can be 10 feet long 
• polar bears can weigh as much as 10 men
• polar bears are not actually white their hair is made up of hollow tubes 
• under their hair polar bears skin is black