You may have noticed a polar bear theme here on the website in the past few days. Here, you’ll find all of these linked in one place so when you are creating a therapy theme, you have everything you need for polar bear crafts, polar bear sensory activities, polar bear gross motor ideas, and more. Add these ideas to an arctic animal theme, and have fun this winter!
Polar Bear Activities
This time of year, polar bear themes are common. There are many ways to incorporate this fuzzy arctic animal through play and learning while still building skills.
Here are some of the fun ideas we’ve shared:
Polar Bear Sensory Bin- A polar bear sensory bin goes well with the books and snack listed below. Make a day of polar bear learning and play for home activities or a therapy theme.
Polar Bear Gross Motor Activities- We used a masking tape obstacle course in this polar bear gross motor activity. The polar bear gross motor slide deck is a great addition to getting kids moving.
Polar Bear Self-Regulation Activity- Use this polar bear deep breathing printable to help kids with mindfulness and deep breathing as a coping strategy. It’s a free self-regulation tool you can use in a polar bear theme at home or at school.
Polar Bear Science- Kids can use play dough and cut straws to explore how a polar bear’s fur keeps him warm. It’s a great fine motor workout, too.
Polar Bear Worksheets- You’ll love all of the items in our Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s loaded with coloring sheets, handwriting pages, puzzles, and crafts with a polar bear theme. There are sensory bin materials, polar bear finger puppets, lacing cards, modified handwriting pages, scissor skills activities, and so much more.
Polar Bear Books
{Note: This post contains affiliate links.} Head to the library with this list in hand. There are so many great polar bear books out there, and they make a great addition to sensory play, handwriting activities, and gross motor play. We’ve been reading these books all weekend, and they are SO much fun! The kids especially love Ice Cream Larry, which is such a silly, fun story! Some of our favorite Polar Bear Books for Kids:
Ice Cream Larry by Daniel Manus Pinkwater
Touch the Sky, My Little Bear by David Bedford
God Gave Us the World by Lisa Tawn Bergren
Mama, Why? by Karma Wilson
That’s Not My Polar Bear by Fiona Watt
I put together a bin with a bunch of craft supplies so we are ready to do all kinds of Polar Bear activities. We had a stay-at-home day today and did a few fun things while it was frigidly cold outside…
We checked out the areas where Polar Bears live and found the Arctic Ocean, Alaska, Canada, Denmark, Greenland, and Russia.
We talked about how the mama bear finds a big mound of snow and paws a shelter to protect her and her baby cubs during winter. Then the mama and baby come out in the spring.
Polar Bear Imagination Activities
This felt board was quick to snip up while the kids were eating breakfast this morning. So fun for imagination play! Big Sister pretended to be the mama bear and dug out the snow mound for a little home so the baby could stay inside.
We made this big snow mound using blankets over a table. All of the kids played in here for a long time! Little Guy kept saying “Humans are coming! Humans are coming!” and crawling in and out of the opening. Baby Girl LOOOOVED all of the action and just got really excited to be part of it 🙂
Polare Bear Craft
Big Sister did a cutting and gluing craft to make a Polar Bear. She thought Mr. Bear needed some buttons on his belly 🙂 You’ll need just a few items for this polar bear craft:
- White paper
- Bubble wrap
- Black Marker
- Scissors
- Glue
To make the craft, draw circles in different sizes on the paper. You’ll need a big circle for the belly, a smaller circle for the head, two circles for the ears, two circles for the eyes, and a circle for the nose. You could also just draw on the eyes and nose.
Cutting circles is a great beginner scissor skills activity for kids. Curved lines is a more difficult progression in cutting with scissors because kids need to hold the paper with their assisting hand and turn the page in order to cut with smooth cuts.
To make this activity easier, use thicker paper or draw thicker lines.
Glue the circles onto the bubble wrap and add the face features.
Polar Bear Snack Idea
We finished up with a little kiddie cooking activity for snack time. Raisins, bananas, apple slices, and marshmallows made some cute little Polar Bears.
I thought Little Guy’s Polar Bear snack was pretty cute 🙂
We have more ideas in store for the rest of the week, so be sure to stop back to see what we are up to! Have you done any cute Polar Bear themed activities? Link them up in the comments, I would love to check them out!!
You’ll also love all of the items in our Winter Fine Motor Kit. It’s loaded with coloring sheets, handwriting pages, puzzles, and crafts with a polar bear theme. There are sensory bin materials, polar bear finger puppets, lacing cards, and so much more.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.