Penguins and Polar Bears

During January, we've had a lot of fun learning about polar animals, namely penguins and polar bears. We read lots of books about cold-weather animals, labeled their body parts, located them on the globe, and even tried to grow our own polar gummy bear! It did the opposite -- shrank -- but being surprised is part of what makes science fun! We did a couple of other fun science experiments too!

 

First, we investigated how a penguin's feathers stay dry in the water. After coloring one of these penguins with black and white crayons and leaving the other blank, we sprayed them with water to see what would happen!

  

We also demonstrated how arctic animals' blubber helps keep them warm in cold water. Mrs. Viall made a "glove" out of ziplock bags (many, many ziplock bags) and crisco shortening. Kind of gross! But wow, does it work! We put one bare hand in a bowl of ice, and the other one was inside our glove. The fat kept one hand warm and toasty!

These next three facial expressions CRACK ME UP! 😆

In his defense, it really was cold! The students had so much fun returning to the ice buckets to feel the differences over and over again!