Cold Weather Animals

 It's been cold and we have decided to embrace it with learning about how amazing cold weather animals are.  We have had so much fun comparing animals that live in the arctic to animals that are right in our backyard surviving arctic temperatures.   We loved learning about the oils that penguins have that keep them dry and had the perfect example and model when we brought our duck named Skittles. Skittles joined our class to show how water just drips right off of her, because they too, preen themselves using their bill and the amazing oil gland they have at the tip of their body near their tail feathers.  Ms. Kelly made a fun craft by using crayons as the oil on a picture of a penguin and then spraying it with water and watching the oil roll off the penguin.  The students had so much fun with all of these activities.  We even added oil to a water bottle and watched as the oil and water separated and how we could not get them to stay mixed up for too long.   Ask your child about the oil and also how the mama penguin passes the egg to the daddy penguin, where the mom goes and how they feed their baby.  :)

We also learned about Polar Bears and how they stay warm and were amazed to find out that their fur is not actually white, but translucent.  The fur looks white by how the light reflects off of it.  We brought Lenna (our farm dog) inside to compare the two animals and find similarities and differences.  We discovered that Lenna also has VERY thick fur and an undercoat to keep her warm in the winter.  Lenna is also mainly carnivorous, just like the polar bear.  :)

IMPORTANT DATES-  NO SCHOOL MAY 4th and 5th