Arctic Animal Fun: Walrus Lesson

Arctic Animal Fun

A month-long unit of preschool ideas 

for different Arctic animals

Welcome to week three of my Arctic Animal Fun unit. 

Each week there will be books I recommend to go with each topic, a craft or two, songs, motion rhymes/finger plays, and a fun game to play. 

This is the tentative schedule:

Week 1: Polar Bears

Week 2: Arctic Fox

Week 3: Walrus

Week 4: Snowy Owl

Week 5: Narwhal, Orca, Beluga Whale

As I mentioned the last two weeks, we start each class with the song "Good Morning to You" to get us focused on our day. Then I found some snowy songs/fingerplays in a book I reviewed last year called I'm a Little Teapot!: Presenting Preschool Storytime compiled by Jane Cobb. 

We sang: 

Snowflakes

(to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Snowflakes whirling all around,

all around, all around

Snowflakes whirling all around,

They are covering the ground.

(The original last line was, "Until they cover all the ground," but it didn't sound quite right to me, so I changed it. We fluttered our fingers all around through the song and spread our arms out for the last line.)

We also did the following finger play:

The Snow Fell Softly

The snow fell softly all the night

flutter fingers downward

It made a blanket soft and white

spread arms out

It covered houses, flowers and ground,

make pointed house, finger flowers, flat hands

But never made a single sound

get quieter and put finger in front of mouth

Then we got into the actual lesson.

Walrus Lesson

As we did the last two weeks, we started out by skimming through the book, What Lives in the Arctic?. This book gives some brief information for a handful of arctic animals. This week I only focused on the details for the walrus. 

Our main book for the class was:

I liked that the story was told as a narrative focusing on this mommy walrus and her baby, yet it gave factual information about the walrus. And there were little yellow boxes throughout the story that gave more details if you wanted to read them.

I also shared photos of real walruses from this book:

We were also supposed to read Walpole by Syd Hoff, but we ran out of time.

Craft

We then made our Paper Plate Walrus Craft that I highlighted in this week's Littles Learning Link Up.

Science Lesson/Game

We learned about the air sac that walruses have that help them stay afloat vertically. Then we explored different objects to see if they would float in a bowl of water.

We started with a bag filled with air. The children tried pushing it down into the water and watched as it popped right back up to float.

Then they each took a turn dropping items into the water that I had brought from home.

Then we made a "Does it Sink or Float?" booklet.

I folded a piece of blue construction paper in half (to represent the water). I had printed "Sink" on one side and "Float" on the other. And then I found pictures of the objects we experimented with and printed them out. The children had to try to remember what those objects had done in the bowl, and they glued them on the correct side of their paper.

I did go through each object one at a time and made sure they put them on the correct side.

Here are all the objects we experimented with.

The items that sank are:

Bolt, crayon, scissors, rock, penny, quarter and marble

The items that floated are:

Apple, sponge, pencil, milk jug lid, straw, bag of air

By the way, did you know Crayola crayons sink but cheapy brand crayons float? I found that out at home, but I didn't want to confuse the children so I only brought the Crayola crayon. 

Songs

We sang our "Did You Ever See a Polar Bear?" song which we sang the first two weeks, but this week I also added a verse for the walrus.

Did You Ever See a Polar Bear?

(To the Tune of Did you Ever See a Lassie?)

by Karen Waide

Did you ever see a polar bear

a polar bear, a polar bear

Did you ever see a polar bear

Sliding on the ice?

Sliding this way and that way

Sliding this way and that way

Did you ever see a polar bear

sliding on the ice?

Motions to go with first verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then step and slide left and right a few times.

Go back to shrugging for the last line and step to the side one last time.

Did you ever see an arctic fox

an arctic fox, an arctic fox

Did you ever see an arctic fox

following a bear?

Creeping this way and that way

Creeping this way and that way

Did you ever see an arctic fox

following a bear?

Motions to go with second verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your hands in front of you and pretend to creep.
Then creep quickly left and quickly right on tiptoes.

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to creep forward.

Did you ever see a walrus

a walrus, a walrus

Did you ever see a walrus

climb on the ice?

Pulling up with their tusks here

Pulling up with their tusks there

Did you ever see a walrus

climb on the ice?

Motions to go with third verse.

Shrug shoulders with hands raised as in questioning for the first three lines.

Then put your hands in front of your face with the index fingers pointing down and pretend to pull up
Then do the same to the left and then to the right

Go back to shrugging for the last line and finish off by pretending to pull up with tusks again
.

And we sang two more songs that I came up with

The Walrus is So Big and Fat

(to the tune of "Do you know the muffin man?")

by Karen Waide

The walrus is so big and fat, 

big and fat, big and fat

He has blubber, skin, and tusks

flippers for his feet

Motions to go with the first two lines: hold your arms curved out in front of you joining at the fingertips.
For blubber: hold one hand like you are showing a layer of fat and hold it on top of your opposite arm.
For skin: rub your right hand over the skin of your left hand.
For tusks: put your hands up to your mouth, and point the index fingers down.
For flippers: hold your arms with elbows at your side, arms out at a 90 degree angle and flap your forearms back and forth

.

The Walrus

(To the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down)

by Karen Waide

Walrus likes to climb on ice,

climb on ice, climb on ice

Walrus likes to climb on ice

with her tusks.

Then she likes to dive down deep

dive down deep, dive down deep

Then she likes to dive down deep

to find food.

She will use her whiskers too

whiskers too, whiskers too

She will use her whiskers too

they will help her

We ended our class time with the following finger play, also from the book I'm a Little Teapot!: Presenting Preschool Storytime compiled by Jane Cobb.

Dressing for Winter Weather

Let’s put on our mittens

put on mittens

And button up our coat

button coat

Wrap a scarf snugly

throw scarf around neck

Around our throat.

Tug one end down

Pull on our boots now

pull on boots with both hands

Fasten the straps

fasten with fingers

And tie on tightly

Our warm winter caps

pull on cap and tie

Then open the door

turn doorknob and pull

And out we go

step through pretend door

Into the soft and feathery snow

look up and pretend to catch snow

Stop by next week for the Snowy Owl lesson.