The Three Snow Bears

Brrr... It's cold outside. 

It's time to stay inside where it's nice and warm. 

It's time to hibernate. 

But wait! What about the animals that stay outside all winter long like in our book, 
The Three Snow Bears? 

It's the arctic rendition of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Animal friends like the polar bears, walruses and seals spend the winter in the cold snow and ice and swimming in the frigid, arctic waters. 

We played in icy, cold water to see how it is for these animals and then we did a science experiment to show how they stay warm. We placed our hands in a bucket of icy water. Brrrr. It was freezing. We couldn't keep our hand in very long. Then we placed our hand in a "blubber mitt" (a baggie filled with fat) and put it back in the cold water. It was nice and warm. Arctic animals have heavy fur coats and blubber to keep them warm so that they can play in the snow all winter long.

Pretending we were polar bears, we crawled on all fours through an arctic obstacle course.  We followed the polar bear footprints over the snow and ice, through the bear cave, through an igloo, and up and down a mountain of snow.