Littles Learning Link Up: January 8, 2019: Craft Highlight- Cotton Ball Polar Bears in an Icy, Arctic 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.

Welcome to the first Littles Learning Link Up Highlight post of 2019!

A highlight post isn't the same as a feature. With the highlighted post, we will actually be making the craft(s) or participating in the activity. You will get to see how much we enjoyed it, and I will be mentioning any tweaks that I add. Of course I will be linking back to the original post. 

Littles Learning Link Up January Highlight:

I decided I wanted to focus on Arctic animals this month in our Pre-K class at co-op. Last week we focused on polar bears. I will be sharing my Pre-K unit posts on Fridays this month. However, on Tuesdays I will be sharing the craft that we made. This week's craft is a Littles Learning Link Up Highlight post because it was one of the crafts shared in last week's Arctic Fun Round Up. 

I really liked Melissa's Free Printable Polar Bear Craft for Kids over at Fireflies & Mud Pies. In my lesson, I was focusing on how a polar bear stays warm, so it was quite appropriate that she used a black template to represent the black skin of the polar bear. And with lots of fluffy white cotton we had very warm polar bears in our class.

Cotton Ball Polar Bears in an Icy, Arctic World

You will need:

Light blue construction paper

Black construction paper

Walking-on-all-fours polar bear template

White acrylic paint

School glue

Cotton swabs

Container for paint

Cotton balls

Googly eyes

Small black pompoms

In preparation I traced the polar bear template that is available on the Fireflies & Mud Pies blog. Yes, I actually put my white paper up on the computer screen and traced it. We are low on ink, so I didn't want to print out a all-black polar bear template. You could also do this craft by printing out any other walking-on-all-fours polar bear template that is available or drawing your own; however, seeing as I am highlighting Melissa's craft, I wanted to use her cute template.

My next step was cutting out enough polar bears for our class. Older children could cut out the bears themselves, but I have some young three year old children, so I decided it would be better to have the templates cut out and ready to go. Plus, I wasn't sure how long our lesson would take.

When we were ready to make our craft, I gave each of the children a piece of blue paper plus the paint and a cotton swab, and I set the polar bear templates in easy reach.

The children used the cotton swabs to dab falling snow on their papers and to "brush" snow and ice for the polar bear to stand on in her arctic world.

We then set the snowy scene in the middle of the table to dry while the children glued cotton balls to the black skin of the polar bear. The other mom and I spread glue all over the template and taught the children how to stretch out the cotton balls so they would cover a greater area. We helped those who were struggling with this step.

While the children were at snack and gym, I glued the polar bears to the icy world.

Then, when the children returned, they glued a googly eye and a black pompom nose onto their polar bears.

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

The Crew year is over, and we won't be getting any new review products until January. However, I do still have a couple of single review products we are working on (these are the ones that I don't publish on my blog, instead they are posted on the Old Schoolhouse Magazine website). We are reading a book called Animals in Time Volume 1: Historical Empires and Civilizations. This also came with an Activity Book. And the children are working on an activity box from Cooper & Kid with their dad.

Here are a few things I would like to share with you:

Another Polar Bear Craft

Paper Plate Polar Bear in an Icy World

Some more cotton ball crafts:

Cotton and Paint Snowman

Fluffy Snowflakes

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 6 wonderful post linked up. I will be featuring two randomly selected posts.

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:

Rebecca from Miniature Masterminds shared Forest Animals DIY Domino Printable Game

This week's second randomly selected post is:

Nicole from Mama of Many Blessings shared Snowflake Art.

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