How Do Polar Bears Stay Warm Preschool Science Experiment

12/29/2022

How Do Polar Bears Stay Warm Preschool Science Experiment

How do polar bears stay warm when it's freezing, snowing, and windy? Preschoolers are curious about how arctic animals stay warm without any winter gear. The winter is a perfect time to explore how our favorite arctic animals stay warm during the chilly months. Preschoolers love science, and explaining how polar bears stay warm is an excellent opportunity for science exploration.

If you’re exploring an arctic animal unit, this is a great time to educate preschoolers on body warmth and blubber! Many of these concepts can feel too advanced or abstract for our younger learners. Informational facts and a winter science activity that allows preschoolers to experience firsthand make the challenging concepts easier for preschoolers to understand. We've provided a step-by-step tutorial below on how to implement this activity to teach your preschoolers on how polar bears stay warm.

Materials:

Ice Water
Shortening
Bowl
Crafts sticks

*Teacher tip: as an extension activity invite preschoolers to cover plastic arctic animals in shortening and put them in the ice water.

Process:

As you gather all of your materials, have a quick discussion with your preschoolers about polar bears and have preschoolers make predictions on why they stay warm. Then invite preschoolers to place their hands in the ice water but no need to keep them into too long because it is cold!

Next use the shortening to make blubber depending on preschooler's preference they might want only their finger covered or some may choose to cover all of their fingers. The experiment will work either way!

If any of your students are apprehensive about using the blubber on their hands invite them to place their hands in a ziplock bag then cover the bag.

As preschoolers hands are being covered introduce the word blubber and explain what it is.

Then preschoolers will dip their fingers into the water again! Does it feel different? Does it still feel cold? Watch their excitement as they experience the temperature change.

Talk with your preschoolers about blubber keeps arctic animals warm but also because they have fur. Talk to them about the difference between what keeps humans and polar bears warm.

This is an excellent opportunity to teach preschoolers how blubber keeps polar bears warm in freezing cold temperatures, but since it is stored fat, it can also help when food is hard to find. Using hands-on experiences helps preschoolers make a connection to the real world, and it's a super cool experience for a preschooler!