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Polar Bears in the Northern Lights

Polar Bears in the Northern Lights

Children will explore the phenomenon of the aurora borealis and create a colorful drawing of a polar bear with the northern lights in the background.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • White Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Explain to children that the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is a phenomenon that starts in the sun. Energy from the sun's core gets transferred to Earth's atmosphere, and the process of transferring this energy creates the colors we call the aurora. Have children look at some images of northern lights displays. Ask them to describe the colors they see. Then explain that, while it can be seen elsewhere, it is mainly visible in Arctic regions.

  • Step 2

    Ask children to create a picture of a polar bear, the largest animal that lives in the Arctic region, with the northern lights as a background. They can use basic shapes to create the bear: an oval for its body, a circle for its head, rectangles for its legs, etc. They can draw the bear with colored pencils and then use watercolors to paint the northern lights around it.

  • Step 3

    Have children present their art and discuss the shapes they used to create it and the colors in the aurora borealis.

Standards

MATH: Analyze, compare, create, and compose math ideas using written, oral, and drawn lines, shapes, forms, and patterns.  

SCI: Design pictorial or graphic representations/models that are useful in communicating ideas. 

Adaptations

Ask children to make another arctic animal in its natural environment. They can decide if it will be a daytime or night scene. Discuss how darkness lasts for many more hours during the winter in this area.

Explain that polar bears stay warm in the arctic because they have a thick layer of fat called blubber. Demonstrate how this works by doing the following: Fill a bucket or bowl with ice water. Ask children to dip their fingers in it to see how that feels. Then have them cover their hand or one or two fingers with a latex glove or plastic wrap. Help them apply a thick layer of vegetable shortening or Crisco to their hand or fingers and wrap an additional layer of plastic wrap over the shortening. Then have them plunge their covered hand into the ice water again. It should feel much more tolerable!