At Home Adventures: Arctic-Inspired Activities For Kids Made Simple

All the snow we have been having in Colorado lately has me feeling really inspired to do some arctic inspired activities for kids. Thus these arctic themed explorations were born and I have to say, my kids have been loving them! It wouldn’t be a post for The Simplified Parent if there weren’t some educational aspects intertwined.

In this blog post, I’ll be covering activities for kids that are inspired by the Arctic, specifically the animals that live there. I will be covering,

• Play dough, a simple and fun activity to start
• Adding in some educational activities for kids
• Books to read
• Other activities that are fun, but less educational
• Arts and Crafts

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Play dough, A Simple and Fun Activity to Start

To start these arctic themed activities for kids, I started with something simple. Homemade play dough! This is one of my favorite things to do with my kids. It is super simple to make, and uses things you likely already have at home. I also love it because you can add colors, smells, mix-ins, etc. to adjust it to the time of year and/or activity you are engaging in.

For this play dough, I wanted to have it resemble snow as much as possible. Therefore, I did not add any colors and just added some silver glitter I had lying around.

Here is a simple recipe for play dough:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup salt
• 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil

You put all of the ingredients in a pot over medium heat on the stove. Stir it until it comes together and gains the consistency of play dough. Know that it will start out very watery, but will ultimately come together. Once you have your play dough, place it in a plastic bag and knead it until smooth.

You can add in some glitter, food coloring, or even a few drops of peppermint extract to up the fun factor.

Adding in Some Educational Activities for Kids

Now that we have our simple start, it’s time to add some additional educational activities for kids.

Explore Camouflage

To discuss the idea of camouflage with my kids, I bought these arctic animal figurines. These will also come in handy in the next activity.

We started by discussing what camouflage is. I asked my kids: which animals would be able to camouflage, or hide in our “snow” (the play dough we made)? Why can they camouflage (getting at the idea of them having white fur or skin)? We then sorted them based on which ones could camouflage in the snow and which ones couldn’t.

Animal Tracks

Since we had our play dough rolled out and the animals already out, we went right into this animal tracks activity. Even though I didn’t have the same figurines as this post discusses, it still generally worked with the ones I had bought. My oldest enjoyed learning about the different footprints, while my toddler had a lot of fun making the foot impressions in the play dough.

How Arctic Animals Stay Warm

I really love this activity for kids that explores the question of how arctic animals stay warm in icy water. All you need is a bowl of ice and water, a glove, plastic wrap, and Crisco. First, you’ll have your child explore how cold the water is without anything on their hands. Then have them put on a glove, coat it in Crisco, and then wrap all of that in plastic wrap to keep it from making a huge mess. Once they are layered up, have them stick their hand back in the water. You can then discuss how the fat animals have helps them stay warm in the icy water of the Arctic.

Photos from https://www.icanteachmychild.com/how-arctic-animals-stay-warm-in-icy-water/

How Penguins Stay Dry

The next on my list of activities for kids is related to the previous one, but explores why penguins stay dry. This one will work for most age groups. All you need is a penguin coloring page, crayons, and a spray bottle. I recently bought these crayons for my toddler and she has loved them.

Start by having your child color the penguin with crayons, including the white parts with a white crayon. Then spray the penguin with water and notice how the water beads up on the parts your child colored. Penguins have a wax on their feathers, like the crayons, and this repels water. Since they don’t actually get soaked with the water, they are able to stay dry and warm.

Extension: Discuss Global Warming and its Impacts

For older kids, you can take your Arctic exploration to another level, discussing global warming and how it impacts the animals in the Arctic. This activity came from Kitchen Counter Chronicle. In this post, she uses modeling clay to make polar bears. You could use these arctic animal figurines I mentioned earlier in this post.

This activity involves freezing some water in the bottom of a shallow container, letting kids play with the polar bears on the ice, then slowly warming up the ice (or removing it if attention spans are limited) to show how the ice is disappearing. You can then use this to discuss what is happening to the ice in the Arctic due to global warming and how this is impacting the animals that live there. I really love the questions and answers she has outlined in her post.

Photos from https://www.icanteachmychild.com/how-arctic-animals-stay-warm-in-icy-water/

Books to Read

If you want to connect some literature to your Arctic Exploration day, check out these great options (I have linked both where to buy the actual book as well as a great video you can watch with your kids).

• Arctic Animals by Jill McDonald. This book is great for younger kids. It discusses how animals stay warm, camouflage, and tracks, all things explored in these activities for kids listed here. It is also great because it is relatively short. Here is the link to the video.
• Save the Arctic by Bethany Stahl. This book addresses the issue of global warming and its impact on the Arctic. It is a great companion to the polar bear and global warming activity above. Here is the link to the video.

Other Activities that are Fun, but less Educational

Here are some other easy activities for kids that are easy, fun, and focused on the Arctic.

• Polar Bear Facts Activity – I love this activity because it can easily be adjusted for different ages. You can print off the footprints and have your 2 year old stomp on them for a gross motor activity (this is what I did), you can add facts to the prints for elementary aged kids, and/or you could have kids write their own facts on the prints.
• Arctic Animals Yoga – Another great gross motor activity to do with your kids.
• Polar Bear Sensory Bin – If you have read any of my other posts, you know that I love a good sensory bin activity (see my leafy adventures post).
• Ice Skating Penguins – In lieu of a sensory bin for this day, I decided to make ice skating penguins and my toddler loved it! You simply freeze some plastic penguins (I used these arctic animal figurines from earlier in this post) and froze them in ice cubes with some blue food coloring. I then let her play with them on a cookie sheet and she had so much fun. It became a bit of a mess, but luckily it was mostly water.

Arts and Crafts

Here are some easy Arctic inspired arts and crafts activities for kids.

• Polar Bear Mask – I would suggest using cotton balls as this is something you likely already have at home.
• I Spy – in addition to sensory bins, I also love sensory bottles! This is a fun sensory bottle, turned “I Spy” game with an arctic theme. I use these bottles to make sensory bottles for my kids.
• Make clear slime with a snow theme! See my Slimy Wonders post for the clear slime recipe and other ideas. Add in some fun winter mix-ins (glitter, snow confetti, animal figurines, etc.)

In Closing

I hope this post has given you some ideas of fun activities for kids that you can do at home with a bit of an educational twist. If you want to buy the products I reference in this post, they are all linked below to make it easier for you to find:

• glitter
• food coloring
• peppermint extract
• arctic animal figurines
• glove
• Crisco
• crayons
• bottles
• Arctic Animals by Jill McDonald
• Save the Arctic by Bethany Stahl