Arctic Animal Theme Activities for Preschool Kids
This winter, discover fun and learning as you explore Arctic animal activities with your little learners. I’ve got all kinds of fun polar animal activities, printables, games, and crafts to encourage learning and get your kids excited about these amazing cold weather Arctic friends!
Ready to get the scoop on all kinds of learning fun for an Arctic animal theme in your classroom? Keep reading to get awesome Arctic animal activity ideas, book suggestions to read aloud, and really cool resources for your classroom or home learning adventure!
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Preschool Arctic Animal Theme for Preschool Kids
I love teaching units with a great preschool theme! This January, consider adopting an Arctic animals theme to encourage cognitive development, increase engagement, and have fun learning with your kids. Thematic units integrate many subjects using a central theme that kids can get excited about or something they’ll naturally be curious about.
An Arctic animal theme for preschool kids introduces a host of fascinating creatures like polar bears, narwhals, and penguins! While learning about these amazing cold-weather friends, your preschoolers will get hands-on learning experience with themed crafts, games, and sensory play with an Arctic theme. Plus, they’ll get to explore beautiful picture books about Arctic animals and share what they’ve learned with family and friends.
Did you know January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day? That makes it the perfect time to explore learning about penguins and other cold-weather animals with your little learners. Celebrating Penguin Awareness Day is preschoolers is a great way to impart valuable lessons and practice critical fine motor skills with a fun winter theme!
Preschool students can explore the world of penguins through stories, cut-and-paste crafts, and even a “waddle like a penguin” dance. Celebrations like this help kids fall in love with wild animals as they practice counting, colors, early reading skills, and more. Additionally, they’ll learn just how important it is to protect Arctic animals and other wildlife.
I’ve got lots of fun printable Arctic animal activities that are so much fun! Keep reading to discover all my favorite Arctic animal crafts and some engaging animal reports featuring penguins, reindeer, and more!
Build Fine Motor Skills with Arctic Animal Crafts
Cut and paste Arctic animal crafts are one of the best ways to help your students build fine motor skills this winter. Little hands will love my crafty preschool activities all about Arctic animals!
Crafts aren’t just fun, they’re essential for early child development. Incorporating Arctic animal crafts into your lesson plans adds a hands-on learning approach that’s important for helping preschoolers develop critical fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. My printable crafts will help young children learn to express themselves through art and encourage them to use their imaginations too.
These Arctic animal theme activities will help kids learn to follow step-by-step instructions, develop problem-solving skills, and learn to work together as they share materials like glue and scissors. Plus, making a polar bear craft or any other kind of craft a regular part of your preschool lesson plans is a fun way to encourage learning in the classroom and at home.
In this printable bundle of Arctic Animal Crafts, you’ll get 6 cut and paste winter crafts that can be copied onto colored paper, cut and glued together, or traced by students for pre-writing practice. There’s a photograph of each animal and labeled templates that make it easy for kids to create a polar bear craft, a penguin craft, a moose craft, an Arctic fox craft, an Arctic seal craft, or a walrus craft.
Arctic Animal Books for Kids
Parents and teachers can pair these crafts with great books about animals who live in polar regions for student readers who want to know more. That way your emerging readers can dive deeper into fun facts and great stories about different Arctic animals. Check out some of my favorites below.
Look Closer: Into the Arctic by Roger Priddy
That’s Not My Polar Bear by Fiona Watt
What’s That Noise? by Naomi Howarth
Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft
The Lost Narwhal by Tori McGee
Develop Literacy Skills with Arctic Animal Activities
Reading beautiful books about Arctic foxes and other cold weather friends is one of the very best ways to help your preschoolers develop early literacy skills. There are lots of other great ways to develop literacy skills with Arctic animal activities too! Helping preschoolers learn to write well is another great way to build literacy skills during an Arctic animals unit.
Introducing your preschool students to writing animal reports is a fantastic approach to building early literacy skills in the classroom or at home. Helping them to write about their favorite animals with printable animal graphic organizers will encourage them to practice creative writing and develop new language skills too. They’ll develop stronger vocabularies, grammar skills, and an understanding of syntax.
Plus, researching and organizing information with polar animal activities for their reports fosters cognitive development and increases retention. It’s a playful and effective tool for preschoolers, laying the groundwork for a deeper love for learning.
Get your little learners ready to explore and write their very own Arctic Animal Reports with my printable arctic animal report activities. I’ve got reports for a variety of animals including reindeer, penguins, narwhals, walruses, and polar bears. Each Arctic animal report comes with a black and white cover students can decorate, simple passages with photos of real life Arctic animals, an animal fact sheet, worksheets with and without sentence stems for writing practice, blank informational booklet pages featuring space to draw, and map of the world for students to color polar habitats.
More Polar Animal Activities for Learning Fun
There are so many more polar animal activities for learning fun in the classroom and at home! Animal reports and cut-and-paste polar animal activities are excellent ways to practice fine motor skills and develop literacy, but what about math or movement activities? Check out some of my favorite Arctic animal theme activities and resources for little learners below.
Arctic Counting Activity
Grab your counting bears, pom poms, or mini erasers and get ready for some polar counting fun! These fun mats will introduce easy math skills such as counting to 20, number recognition, and one-to-one correspondence to your preschool learners.
Simply download the free arctic animal activity, identify the number on each mat, and count out that many manipulatives of your choice. It’s an easy way to learn with a fun polar theme!
Arctic Fox Shape Craft
This Winter shape craft of an Arctic Fox is the perfect shape craft for an Arctic animal theme! My printable Arctic Fox Shape Craft comes with a pattern that can be copied onto colored paper, cut out, and glued together by students or Xeroxed and traced by students for a fun Winter activity.
It’s perfect for decorating your classroom, making bulletin boards, or building fine motor skills and shape recognition with preschoolers. As your students put together two-dimensional shapes to build a fox, they’ll be learning to identify shapes and developing finger strength for handwriting too. Then, continue the math learning fun with the included shape counting worksheet.
Kids can count and record the number of triangles, squares, and other shapes they used to create an Arctic fox with this printable craft. It’s the perfect activity to pair with a picture book about the Arctic region.
Penguins On Ice Activity
The Learning Resources Penguins On Ice Math Activity Set is a versatile educational resource for young children. This fun activity promotes early math skills through interactive hands-on play with adorable penguin characters. Explore sorting, patterns, counting, and working with base ten as your students count penguins, put them in order, and connect the ice bar ten frames to form a grid of 100.
Arctic Animal Yoga
Arctic animal yoga for kids combines healthy physical activity and imagination. Designed to introduce yoga concepts in a fun way, this yoga activity will help get the wiggles out on a cold winter day! Children will love mimicking the movements and behaviors of their favorite arctic animals like a snowy owl or beluga whale.
This interactive exercise enhances gross motor skills, flexibility, and coordination. It also promotes mindfulness and helps kids manage stress. Through storytelling and poses inspired by arctic creatures, kids will nurture both physical and mental well-being in a fun new way.
Arctic Sensory Bin
Creating an Arctic animal sensory bin is a multisensory educational experience for young learners. An arctic sensory bin, strategically placed on a sensory table, invites children to explore a frozen polar world with various textures to delight the senses. Incorporating miniature animals sparks imaginative play as kids discover the icy habitat Arctic animals call home.
This hands-on activity encourages sensory development in young learners, fostering a love for exploration and understanding the natural world in a playful setting. It’s a great addition to any Arctic animal theme unit.
What are your favorite Arctic animal activities to explore with little ones? Share your favorites in the comments. I can’t wait to read them!
