Activity 6: Polar explorers

Introducing the children to cold climates, helping them explore the characteristics of polar environments.

Learning goal

  • To explore and understand life in a cold place, comparing and contrasting it with our own lives.

EYFS outcomes

Development matters

Understanding the world 

  • Recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries.
  • Recognise some environments that are different from the one in which they live.

Characteristics of effective learning 

  • Playing and exploring.
  • Creating and thinking critically.

See Development Matters (non-statutory curriculum guidance).

Before the lesson

Print in advance

Activity

Support and challenge

Adults can use the opportunity to discuss and/or support with: 

  • Having other books about cold or polar environments available for the children (both fiction and non-fiction) to show various places, lived experiences and perspectives.
  • Providing tablets or computers for the children to explore Google Earth further, supervised to ensure safety, allowing them to discover more about the Arctic and Antarctica.
  • Having materials available for the children to create their own polar landscapes or animals using a mix of textures, such as cotton wool for snow and ice and paint for the Northern Lights. 
  • Giving clear, simple instructions for each role-play scenario and helping the children to select appropriate props that they might need in a polar region.
  • Helping the children with the polar checklist by reading each item and discussing it.
  • Asking questions that require more than a yes or no answer, such as “Why do you think it’s important to wear gloves in the snow?”

Key vocabulary

  • blizzard

  • explorer

  • ice

  • polar

  • scientists

  • snow

  • snowstorm

Curriculum opportunities

Created by:
Kapow Primary, 
Geography specialist
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