{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure Policy for details.}
Each UNIT STUDY includes suggestions of books to READ, ideas to WRITE, crafts to CREATE, more to EXPLORE, snacks to ENJOY and other ways to LEARN about a specific topic!
This is part of a series, THE 12 DAYS OF WINTER UNIT STUDIES. For a thorough explanation of UNIT STUDIES {what they are and what they include} check out THE 12 DAYS OF WINTER UNIT STUDIES. You’ll also find a schedule of when each new UNIT PACK will go live!
Day Four: THE ARCTIC
Confession time! Other than the fact that POLAR BEARS lived there while penguins didn’t, I knew very little else about THE ARCTIC before doing some research for this UNIT STUDY. I’m not going to lie and say I want to choose it for my next vacation, but it sure does offer some fun and interesting learning opportunities!
READ: Cozy by Jan Brett is a fairly new book and so stinking cute! She always does a great job of weaving tidbits of animal facts into the cuteness of fiction, and this book manages that for several types of ARCTIC animals. It’s super cute! And it also highlights the fact that THE ARCTIC is really very cold while also subtly exposing the reader to the beauty of the Northern Lights. My library did not have it so I ordered it from Amazon, but even though I have only a teenager at home, I decided this book was worthy of a purchase. And, there are a couple of comprehension pages you can grab from the FREE mini BOOK COMPANION PACK.
WRITE: With its lions and hippos, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear by Eric Carle might seem like an odd choice for an ARCTIC book but it’s a great book to turn into an ARCTIC writing project! Just print it out from this FREE WINTER-THEMED WRITING ACTIVITIES PACK and your kiddos can make a super cute book all on their own. Not only will they need to write in the names of each ARCTIC animal, they will also need to come up with a verb for each animal too!
For a more challenging writing project, this activity asks the student to create a new ARCTIC animal and write about how it adapts to the cold. You can also find it in the FREE WINTER-THEMED WRITING ACTIVITIES PACK. 
CREATE: Arctic White by Danna Smith is a really simple but beautiful way to introduce your kids to the Northern Lights. After reading it, this Northern Lights for Kids by Taming Little Monsters would be the perfect art project to create! It looks lovely and fairly simple. Plus, the only supplies needed are black paper, pastels, a toothpick and glue. And while the glue is drying, be sure to assess your kids’ comprehension of the book with the pages found in the FREE mini Book Companion Pack {same place to find the pages for Cozy.}
EXPLORE: My son just watched and thoroughly enjoyed the series, Hostile Planet, on Disney Plus {it’s also on Amazon Prime for a small fee.} There are six episodes, with Polar being the final episode. I have NOT watched it myself because I am a total baby when it comes to “the circle of life” and all that stuff. But, he learned a ton from it. Check it out at your own risk though….apparently, the title is not misleading. According to my son’s recounting, the hostility that the wildlife endures from one another and the changing climate change is not white-washed at all.
There is also an entire docu-series about the polar regions from the BBC, Frozen Planet. We have not watched it….but I am sure it’s similar to the above-mentioned Polar episode, just with a lot more information spread out over an entire series.
Arctic Dogs is a full-length animated movie that is probably pretty pointless when it comes to education but it’s way more my style than real polar bears eating real seals so I’m including it! It’s rated PG.
ENJOY: This Marshmallow Igloo from Mombrite is not only easy to make and cute, it’s also fully edible! And, all you need is an apple, some peanut butter and a bunch of mini-marshmallows!
Or you could go the more challenging route with toothpicks and marshmallows like this one from Lemon Lime Adventures.
Either way, you’ll need to stock up on mini-marshmallows!
LEARN: As I said above, I knew next-to-nothing about THE ARCTIC so everything I learned while researching this topic was extra interesting to me. Like, Matthew Henson! Do you know about him? He’s a remarkable African American that was with Robert Peary on several expeditions to the North Pole. You can read all about him in the WINTER-THEMED INFORMATIONAL TEXT AND WRITING PROMPTS. Just be sure to use code 12DAYSofWINTERWOLFe so you can download the pack for FREE. 
READ MORE: You’ll find a good mix of additional books below, both fiction and non-fiction. Keep On! is a good book about Matthew Henson that you may want to check out! And, I sure wish my library had Arctic Tundra or Living in the Arctic on the shelf!
Check out the entire series,
12 Days of Winter Unit Studies!
READ~WRITE~CREATE~EXPLORE~ENJOY~LEARN!
I hope you found at least some of these suggestions in this ARCTIC UNIT STUDY as interesting as I did!
Be sure to check out the other UNIT STUDIES as they go live. You can find the full schedule, along with the rest of the Homeschooling Fun Through the Holidays Series, HERE!
Next up: EVERGREEN TREES
Much appreciation goes out to my good friend, Jamie Spear! She helped me find these fun books, crafts, snacks and more! Without her, these UNIT STUDIES would have nothing but “read this, print that, and write something!” You can find her on FaceBook, Instagram and Pinterest.
[…] Next up: THE ARCTIC […]