International ❄️Polar 🐻Bear Day
02/27/2017
International ❄️Polar🐻Bear Day is an annual event celebrated every February 27 to raise awareness about the conservation status of polar bears and the impact of global warming and reduced sea ice on polar bear population. So, we started our unit study by reading about polar bears and the dangers they are facing.
See here Books📚 we are 📖reading for the International ❄️Polar 🐻Bear Day.
Polar bear ~ the world's largest carnivore, can grow up to nine feet tall (when standing) and 1400 pounds. Polar bears live at the North Pole region and are native to Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. It is believed that all polar bears are left handed!
After 📖 reading, we explored through sensory play. I strongly believe that sensory play is extremely important for children since by manipulating different textures, children trigger various senses. In turn, triggering sensory stimulation sends multiple signals between neurons, thus strengthening neuron-connectivity and spurring neuroplasticity (the production of new connections between neurons, even new neurons themselves). All of this inevitably induces brains' agility. Also, the clean up is minimal since everything is contained in a tub, tin, box, or any other container.
We talked about the danger of ice in the Arctic ocean melting earlier each year, shortening polar bear's hunting season, and causing a shortage of food. Once the ice melts, the seals swim out to sea, making it harder to catch them. Sometimes polar bears have to swim out too far ~ some drown.
Stimulating tactile senses - the sense of🖐🏻 touch: the texture of water💦 jelly beads🌀(buy here) was slippery and "squishy", the ice felt cold, while insta-snow (non-toxic, and expandable once add water) felt "fluffy"(buy here).
As a result of this fun sensory activity, Adrian stimulated two senses:
- 👀 the sense of Sight/Visual sense, and
- 🖐🏻 the sense of Touch/Tactile sense.
Ringed seals are polar bears' favorite food.
A cub learns to hunt by observing his mother.
Cubs live with their mother for two years, after that, she leaves them, ready to mate again and have more babies.
Through this sensory stimulatory-play, we learned a lot about polar 🐻bears, about dangers they are facing, and we also paused and thought what we can do to help them. "One drop💧raises the sea🌊," I tell my children: each and every one of us can make a difference, even if the difference seems small, even insignificant compared to the magnitude of 🌎global issues we are facing. But once we realize that we all share our home🏡 with every other living thing, and if we act respectfully to each other and conserve and cherish the resources which are finite, we can make a difference!
To prepare our❄️Polar 🐻 Bear sensory bin, we are using these amazing water jelly beads (buy here), which are nontoxic, biodegradable, and available in 3 colors: white, aqua, and blue. Once you add water, the dehydrated beads start to enlarge, and in few hours, they are fully expanded!
Dehidrated hydrogels are tiny.
20 minutes after adding water.
Few hours after adding water ~ hydrogels are fully expanded.
You can see the size comparison of dehydrated vs fully expanded beads.
For more on Arctic region, see here ❄️Polar 🌎Regions Unit Study • 🎅🏻 🇦🇶Land 🌊Water 🌬Air.
Happy International ❄️Polar Bear 🐻 Day! How do you celebrate the holiday?
You might also like to read here our 🌊 Ocean Unit Study.
See here breathtaking pictures of polar bears @ sandiegozoo.