Littles Learning Link Up: February 27, 2018- Paper Plate Polar Bear in an Icy World

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

Well, after our week off we have been busy, busy, busy. I'm trying out a slightly different routine/schedule for our day, and it seems to be working well. Though, when we keep adding unplanned outings and late nights to our week, it is hard to tell. 

In our Bible reading we have made it to the time of the Judges. And we are continuing to learn about the civilizations that lived at these times. We finished putting together our Ancient Egypt timeline from Home School in the Woods, and we are greatly anticipating playing the Tomb Dash game that will be a part of that review. 

Last week also included a field trip up to Buffalo, NY to watch the Rochester Americans hockey game. The children love the opportunity to see the few sites of the city. 

And, of course, we enjoyed watching the game, though they did lose.

Our field trip took place Wednesday afternoon/evening, after a fun time at co-op. Let's move on to this week's craft. 

At first I was planning on doing a different arctic animal, the walrus, as a friend had found a really cute craft idea. Then the children and I read a book called Welcome by and I decided I would do a polar bear craft. As we've done several paper plate projects this year, I figured I would make a polar bear head out of a paper plate. However, I decided to look up ideas for paper plate polar bears, and I found the cutest craft over at A Dab of Glue Will Do. It was simple to put together and the children really enjoyed making their polar bears. As usual, I did make a couple of changes. 

Here is what you will need:

Light blue construction paper

Paper plates

White construction paper

Black construction paper

White tissue paper

Wiggle eyes

Black marker

White paint

Glue sticks

White School Glue

Before co-op I cut out the different parts for the polar bear. I cut a c-shape out of the paper plate and rounded off the edges for the paws. From the part that was cut out, I also cut out the ears. (At first I wondered why we couldn't just use construction paper for the ears, then I realized using the edges from the paper plate gave it a lovely 3-D effect. 

Then I cut the white construction paper into the pieces for the bears head, snout, and tail. The head is a slightly flattened circle, a bit wider on the top than the bottom, and the snout is an oval. I also cut small black circles for the nose. The original used black pompoms, but I wasn't sure if we had any black, so I made the circles just in case. I discovered we did have the pompoms, but when we compared how it would look with them, as opposed to the paper, we decided we liked how the paper noses looks.

Now everything was ready for the children to create their polar bears.

We began by adding snow fingerprints, which was not a part of the original craft. But, I know the kids enjoy using paint, so I added this step.

We set the snowy backgrounds aside to dry while we made the polar bears.

This was a nice, simple craft. The children just needed to glue the facial features on in order. First the face, toward the bottom of the paper plate, then the snout and the nose.

Then we used the marker to draw on a smile and dots.

Lines were added to the paper plate for paws. Wiggle eyes were added above the nose and ears were added under the top of the head. The children used the black marker to add some details to the ears as well. Then we added the tail to the top of the plate, gluing it behind.

At this point the paint was dry, and the children were given tissue paper to tear into pieces of ice, which were glued onto the background.

And then the polar bear was glued on top.

Aren't they cute?

The reason this craft went so well with the book I had, is because of the ice in the background. In the story, three polar bear friends are stranded on a melting ice block that had broken away from the land and drifted them out to see. They tried to find an island to land on, but the inhabitants at each island found reasons why they weren't welcome. They finally found an empty island to call home, right before their ice was completely melted. (The poor bears were piled on top of each other, with only one bear on one foot able to stand on the tiny ice.) Then some monkeys came along and asked if they could come on the island, and the polar bears gladly welcomed them.

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

Last week I shared my review of: Bytes of Learning's UltraKey Online and this week I will share the review for Starfall's Home Membership. We are also reviewing a couple of a la carte products from Home School in the Woods, including the Ancient Egypt Timeline that I mentioned above. That review will be posting in March along with several other reviews. We are using MathArt in Ancient Cultures from NatureGlo's eScience, plus I am reading the book What Every Child Should Know Along the Way from Parenting Made Practical. We actually gave Harold the 3-D Super Bead vehicles from Zirrly and the girls are going to be helping him make them. Plus we received three book from Carole. P. Roman (whose books we have reviewed a couple of times in the past.) Those reviews will all post in March. I have been using Memoria Press's new Traditional Spelling II with Hannah. I will be sharing that review in April.

Here are some things I would like to share with you:

Fun With Dr. Seuss Round Up

Personally, I am looking forward to some warmer weather, so how about focusing on some springtime round ups. 

Creepy, Crawly, Buggy Round Up

Flower and Gardening Fun Literature and Craft Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 12 wonderful posts linked up. I will be sharing a randomly selected post and the top clicked-on post

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Kristen from A Mom's Quest to Teach shared Learning About the Alphabet: C is for Construction

And here is this week's most clicked on post.

Small Worlds Preschool shared The Importance of Play Based Learning.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

An InLinkz Link-up