Animals of Antarctica

Here are five animals that can be found on the continent of Antarctica. There are no land animals on the continent. There are birds, fish, sea mammals and a few kinds of insects. Antarctica consists of the ocean and places frozen over by ice. The temperatures are extremely cold and over centuries, animals have adapted to living in the freezing cold.
Ideas:
Play memory by matching the pictures,
Match the pictures to sounds,
Find arctic related books,
Arctic animals dramatic play,
Arctic theme crafts,
Arctic sensory tub,
Learn vocabulary,
Arctic printable and coloring pages,
Search online or in planning books for more activities.

Click here to download the folder.
It includes the pictures, sounds, map of Antarctica and fact file in Microsoft Word.




Arctic Skua :




Size: Body, 16 to 18 in (41 to 46 cm); Wingspan, 43 to 49 in (110 to 125 cm)
Weight: 12 to 20 oz (330 to 570 g)
The word “skua” comes from the Old Norse term for seagull.
Skuas are sometimes called avian pirates.
Skuas steal much of their food from terns, puffins, and other birds that are carrying fish and other foods back to their nests and young.
They live most of their lives at sea, but come to shore to breed in the summer.Skuas can be light or dark colored.
Click here to hear the Skua's call.
Diet: Eggs, small birds, small mammals and fish.

Blue Whale :




Blue whales are the biggest whale and the biggest animal that has ever lived on Earth.
They are the loudest animal on Earth - even louder than a jet plane.
In good conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away.
Click here to hear one.
They can be found in Antarctica as well as through out the rest of the world.
Can swim at more than five miles an hour (eight kilometers an hour) but accelerate to more than 20 miles an hour (32 kilometers an hour) when they are agitated.
Average life span in the wild: 80 to 90 years
Size: 82 to 105 ft (25 to 32 m)
Weight: Up to 200 tons (181,437 kg)
Group name: Pod
Protection status: Endangered
When a blue whale exhales, the spray from its blowhole can reach nearly 30 ft (9m)
When a blue whale calf, (baby) is born, it already weighs up to 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) and stretches to 25 feet (8 meters). It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds (91 kilograms) every day for its first year.
Diet: Tiny crustaceans and tiny fish.
They can eat some 4 to 8 tons (3.6 to 7.3 metric tons) of krill per day.
Krill are very similar to shrimp.

Elephant Seal:



Average life span in the wild:
9 years (northern); 20 to 22 years (southern)
Size:
Up to 20 ft (6 m)
Weight:
Up to 8,800 lbs (4,000 kg)
Group name:
Colony
Hear a seal colony.
Southern elephant seals can dive over 4,921 feet (1,500 meters) deep and remain submerged
For up to two hours.
There are two species of elephant seals, the northern and southern. Northern elephant seals can be found in California and Baja California, though they prefer to frequent offshore islands rather than the North American mainland.
Southern elephant seals live in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters.
Southern elephants are the largest of all seals.
They are called elephant seals because of their trunk-like inflatable snouts.
Female seals have one pup per year.
Elephant seals were once hunted for their oil and became endangered until laws were made to protect them. Since then, their population has increased.
Hear a young elephant seal play with his echoing call.
Diet: Fish, squid and other marine foods.

Emperor Penguin:




They are the largest of all penguin species.
Size: 45 in (115 cm)
Weight: Up to 88 lbs (40 kg)
Group name: Colony
Hear a colony of emperor penguins!
Penguins are birds that cannot fly.
They are excellent swimmers and spend most of their lives in the sea.
Emperor penguins can dive to 1,850 feet (565 meters)—deeper than any other bird—and stay under for more than 20 minutes.
Average life span in the wild: 15 to 20 years
They live in colonies on ice packs in Antarctica.
They are kept warm by a layer of blubber (fat) and insulating down feathers which are water proof to keep their skin dry. The female lays a single egg and then leaves it behind with the father for around two months.
Male emperors keep the newly laid eggs warm, but they do not sit on them, as many other birds do. Males stand and protect their eggs from the elements by balancing them on their feet and covering them with feathered skin known as a brood pouch.
Hear a penguin chick!
Diet: They eat fish and squid.





Leopard seal:




Average life span in the wild: 12 to 15 years.
Size: 10 to 11.5 ft (3 to 3.5 m).
Weight: Up to 840 lbs (380 kg).
The leopard seal is named for its black-spotted coat. The pattern is similar to that
Of the famous big cat, though the seal's coat is gray rather than golden in color.
Like the big cat, leopard seals are also fierce predators.
leopard seals are insulated from frigid waters by a thick layer of fat known as blubber.
Leopard seals are earless and have long bodies.
Hear a leopard seal!
Diet: Smaller seals, fish, penguins and squid.

Vocabulary:
Blubber: Fat.
Brood Pouch: A pouch where penguins keep their eggs.
Colony: A group (usually referring to animals).
Crustacean: Shellfish that have segmented bodies such as lobsters, crabs and shrimps.

Pod: Group of whales.

My next post will be on Antarctica itself and the habitat of these animals. I’ll have more ideas for planning and play from the list above which I will explain in more detail. My third post will contain a list of books, crafts and printable.

Facts found from: National Geographic.
All pictures found from: Google Images.

Melissa & Doug Shopping Cart & Food Play Sets Giveaway

Here’s another great giveaway that’s on the Thanks, Mail Carrier blog. It’s for a Melissa & Doug shopping cart and your choice of two play food sets all from Gummy Lump.com.
The play food sets featured in this giveaway are the Bake & Decorate Cupcake Set and the Slice and Bake Cookies Set. Both sets are very detailed and are very realistic. The cupcake set includes a baking pan, mitt, cupcake wrappers, cupcakes, frosting toppers and dry and erase markers for frosting designs. The frosting toppers come off so you can switch them around on the different cupcakes. The cookie set includes frosted cookies, a knife, baking pan, mitt and a container. You can attach the icing to the cookies and the cookies to the baking sheet with the Velcro on the bottom. You can also slice these. They come as dough in a tube. I knew the foods were more realistic now, but I’ve never seen anything with this much detail.

The other play food sets include the Stir Fry Slicing Play Food Set, Tiered Special Occasion Cake Play Food Set, Wooden Bake & Serve Brownies Play Food, Wooden Doughnuts Play Food Set and there are a lot more to choose from.

The other prize you can win is the shopping cart which is also realistic and I’m sure most kids would have fun playing with it. It even has a little seat in front for the dolls which can be folded up if you aren’t using it. To enter, click on the giveaway link above and follow the instructions on the page. Good luck!

Animals of Africa: Books and Printables

Here are a list of printables and books for some of the African animals. There are so many more books and printables out there online. All you have to do is search if there’s something else you’d like to find.

Printables:
Elephant Coloring Pages.
Elephant Craft: Learn Shapes
Elephant Stationary
Can you help the elephant get through the maze to the water?
An elephant dot-to-dot puzzle
Giant Giraffe Height Chart
G is for Giraffe
Hippo Paper Bag Puppet
Lion cupcakes
Lion stationery with lines
And without lines (would make a super shape book)
Meerkat Coloring Sheet
Meerkat Maze
Meerkat coloring page and maze found here.
Zebra coloring page.


Books:
Elephants: A Book for Children
"Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!"
Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends
A Giraffe and a Half
Giraffes
The Giraffe Who Was Afraid of Heights
Hippo Goes Bananas!
Hattie Hippo
Face to Face With Lions
Library Lion
Meerkat in Trouble
Meerkat Mail
Meerkats Safari
Meet the Meerkat
How the Zebra Got Its Stripes
Zebras (Wild Ones)
Zink the Zebra

Weekly Favorites: November 14, 2010

There were a lot of great craft posts this week. Here are some of my favorites.
1.
Wax paper flower hangings
These came out really pretty. I like crafts using nature.

2.
Sweet paint with powdered juice
Paint that you can smell is always fun to use!

3.
Melted crayon drawings
Another spin on drawing with crayons. I remember when my art teacher made melted crayons in elementary school. I always enjoyed them more than the average crayons.

4.
Transparent crayon pictures
I've never seen this before, but here's a way to make pictures drawn with crayons transparent.

5.
Painting Pine Cones!
These also came out very pretty. They'd make good ornament or wreath decorations for the holidays.

6.
Squirrely Fun!
A cute book and pine cone craft for a squirrel theme.

The two links below are to free printables. I'm posting them to thank you for sharing these with the rest of us.
Sorting printables Via The Activity Mom.
Free Christmas Printables via Worldwide Classroom.

Animals of Africa: Habitats

Kalahari Facts:
Click here to download the folder which includes photos, the map and the sound clips.

1. The Kalahari spans three countries; Botswana, South Africa and Namibia.
2. It covers about 360,000 square miles (930,000 square
Kilometers).
3. apart from the Boteti River, it supports trees, low scrub, and grasses as well as abundant wildlife. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park.
4. Yearly rainfall varies from 5 in. (12.7 cm) in the southwest, where there are active sand dunes, to 20 in. (50.8 cm) in the
northeast.
5. Grass grows throughout the Kalahari in the rainy season, and some parts
also support low thorn scrub and forest.
6. Its human inhabitants are mainly Sann, who are nomadic hunters, andd Khoikhoi, who are hunters and farmers; Tswana and Herero herders have moved into the area.
7. Summer temperatures in the Kalahari range from 20 to 45°C (68 to 113°F).
I found these facts on various websites.
Most of them were found here.




If you were in the Kalahari, this is what you would hear.

In the Kalahari, there are Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, meerkats and many other animals although some don't stay there year round. I'm focusing on this region because most of the animals that I picked from my first post can be found there.
I'll start with some pictures showing the area.








Pictures of the Animals in their Habitats





Elephants can live in almost any climate from dry climates to rain forests.

Hear the River!





Savanna background with hippo and assorted animals.



Hippos come out of the water to eat grass mostly at night. During the day they spend most of their time in shallow water staying cool.



Hear a Hippo in Water!







Meerkats live in burrows which are underground tunnels. The burrows are for sleeping, giving birth and hiding from predators. The meerkats make the burrows by digging large holes in the sand. There are larger spaces in the burrow for sleeping, but they have holes that go into the burrow tunnel system throughout the area where they live in case they have to run from other animals. They scatter these throughout the area so that they'll have a place to run to at any time.

Meerkats live in close family groups called a gang or a mob.








Ideas:
1. Make a simple match game with similar pictures.
You could match the watering hole pictures, the eating pictures or the pictures of the same animals.
2. Cut the pictures into puzzle pieces and see if your child can put the pictures back together.
3. Make an African animal collage.
4. Make up a picture story.
Sensory Play:
Put sand and Safari Bucket Playset: or Giant Bucket of Wild Jungle Animals Toy Figures - Animal Kingdom in a sensory tub. You can find similar play sets at any local store where you can find toys. You could make a tub with sand and water for the hippos or a less messy option would be water only. You could also use left-over Easter grass instead of sand or water for the grassy planes.

Dramatic Play:
Play with plush animals!



I have a table that has two shelves and I put the blanket over the top and two pillows in the center to make the burrow. You could just drape a blanket over a table and put pillows and other blankets underneath for tunnels.
You could add fake plants and other jungle theme items to the area to make it look more realistic.
I hope you've enjoyed this post. tomorrow, I'll be posting my final Africa post.
Sound Clips Are From:
Bushman Fountain Sunrise (Kalahari, South Africa, November 3, 1990)
Soothing River Sounds from the Rainforest


All images except the plush animal pictures were found on google Images.

Books of the Week

Your All My Favorites by Sam McBratney is a good book especially if you have multiple children. Even though the bear cubs are different, their mom and dad still love them. We read it to our four and five-year-olds. They sat quietly through the story and sometimes pointed out things in the pictures. It was a story they could relate to and they seemed to enjoy it. One of the parents brought it in from home and the boy said that it was one of his favorite books last year. It's worth reading at least once.

The Ugly Caterpillar by Carl Sommer is a book we've read to our younger group many times. First, they enjoy the illustrations and usually sit quietly for the story. It's sad at first when Katie the Caterpillar can't find a friend because she's too ugly. Eventually, she finds a best friend who stays with her through her transformation into a butterfly.
Here's the summary from Amazon.com.
"Speckles the spider and Crumbs the cricket think Katy the caterpillar is much to
Ugly to be their friend. But Annie the ant doesn't agree, and she and Katy become
best friends. As Katy the caterpillar begins her strange transformation into a beautiful
butterfly, her friend Annie is shocked and amazed. Speckles and Crumbs finally learn
that true meaning of Beauty and friendship-and caterpillars? This lively and original
story of respect for others by Carl Sommer is perfectly illustrated in full color
by Greg Budwine and is very highly recommended for young readers, grades K-4."

Guidecraft All In One Play Kitchen Giveaway

Here's a giveaway hosted by Thanks, Mail Carrier. It's for a Guidecraft All In One Play Kitchen!
I'm posting this because it looks to be high quality, detailed, it's larger than most kitchen sets and because it'd be fun for your child to play with. Because of the size and detail, it might be expensive for some people, so it'd be even better to win it! Some of its features include a fridge
with shelf and write-on, wipe-off marker board; a sink; a microwave; an oven with
pull-out rack; a dishwasher: open and closed storage; a clock with moveable hands;
a wall phone, and more. You can get a better description at This post on the Thanks, Mail Carrier blog. Follow the instructions on the page to enter. Good luck!

Fraiche Soaps & Swizzles Giveaway

I have a couple more giveaways to post. The first one is from, Fraiche and is hosted by Mama Buzz.. They sell all natural soaps, swizzles which dissolve in bath water and gift baskets. I like that the soaps are all natural and some of the scents sound good. I read on Mama Buzz’s blog that some of the flower scents actually contain flower petals and that the peppermint scent contains peppermint candy. I think the fruit scented soaps like apple and orange would smell really good. I’ve already entered and I’m posting this to let my followers have a chance as well.
here’s where to enter. Mama Buzz has better descriptions of the soaps and swizzles since she was able to actually try them. She also has several ways to enter to improve your chances. Good luck!

Bear and Ball Book Review

Today we read, Bear and Ball by Cliff Wright. It’s a short and simple book that babies and toddlers would enjoy. It introduces the concept of opposites, has nice simple illistrations and has only a few words on each page so that beginning readers can follow along. Our two and three-year-olds enjoyed the pictures and pointing out the ball on each page. It’s a cute book that would be great for reading to infants and toddlers with short attention spans.



Image from Amazon.com

The Felted Pear Giveaway

I’m linking up to a Felted Pear Giveaway hosted by Counting Coconuts. I’ve already entered this giveaway and wanted my followers to have a chance as well. It’s for a $30 gift certificate to the Felted Pear. The felt foods are really creative and some of the platters are cute. There is a huge variety of food as well.
The Felted Pear is an Etsy shop where you can find hand crafted felt foods for children. The owner of The Felted Pair makes foods like of course pears, a rainbow of fruits and veggies, strawberries, a slice of pizza, a chicken leg, wheat bread sandwiches etc. She even includes not so common fruits and veggies. Click on the link to her store to see all the great items. You can even have food platters customized because everything is hand made. It states that all materials are safe for children ages three and up. You have until Friday to enter. Click on the link to Counting Coconuts at the top of this post and follow the instructions on the page. Be sure to check out the photos on that page as well because there are more items there that aren’t in the Etsy shop. Good luck.