Polar Bear Science and a craft

We had some fun with Science and Polar Bears today…
Did you know Polar Bears don’t have white skin?  They actually have black skin and white, hollow fur.  The hairs of their fur are hollow to absorb the sun’s light and keep the Polar Bear warm in those freezing arctic temps.  When light from the sun hits the white hairs, it is reflected and gives the Polar Bear his white appearance we all think about when we think ‘Polar Bears’.
We were talking about these Polar Bear facts after Googl-ing around and looking for pictures of Polar Bears…Here are a couple of great links for Polar Bear facts for preschoolers…

So our project today was a little Polar Bear Science Experiment

We started out by cutting straws into little bits.  They loved this!!
We used black play dough to be our Polar Bear’s skin and poked the straws into the lump of dough for polar bear “fur”.
(Tripod Grasp on those little straw pieces!)
Once we had all of the “fur” on our little Polar Bear lumps, We pulled out the flash light to be our “sun”.  Check out how the white straws reflect the light and really make the play dough Polar Bear look more white!
Cool, huh??
Little Guy thought this was so much fun!!
Then he made his Polar Bear into a shooter.
Of course.
Our craft was a fun one…a little bit of this and that…
pulled together into an arctic/polar bear scene!
They did this Process Centered Art project…no specific goal in sight.
They love this kind of project.
(the wax paper looking stuff is actually a cereal box liner (Re-purposed!!)
It looks like a Polar Bear, right 🙂
I love it…and especially love the heart birds that Big Sister put on hers!
We have been having Polar Bear fun allll week!
Colleen