Brrrr it's cold outside......

We have been visiting the Arctic Circle of our world this week.  Last week we learned about the South Pole/Antarctica area.  So we finished up with the top of our world. 

Have you visited Gamequarium yet?  Wow...all the Magic School Bus videos!  We watched the one where they visited the Arctic Circle.  This is the part where they were figuring out polar bear hair.

While they were watching this on the computer we built igloos out of sugar cubes.  It is amazing that a house of snow can provide so much shelter from the cold.

We also learned about penguins.  We know that they are a warm-blooded bird.  They have feathers.  The daddy penguins are in charge of protecting the eggs and their babies.  We also learned that most penguin species are black and white.  And a penguin does not fly, but they use their flippers to swim.  We watched March of the Penguins.  While we were watching this wonderful show on Netflix, we did this craft.

We also did the Continent Hop from Confessions of A Homeschooler.  I bought drawer liner to keep them from slipping on the carpet.  Lydia is taking skating lessons, but not that kind of skating!  It was like watching 4 Bambi's walking on ice before the drawer liner! 

We also watched the weather stations in Tuktoyaktuk.   We talked a little about that show Ice Road Truckers.  I believe two seasons ago they drove on the ice road to this outpost.  And unlike Antarctica, it is colder in the Arctic Circle than it is here.  Antarctica has been hovering around the 25F mark and Tuktoyaktuk has been running daytime -10F.  But helped show summer on the lower half of our planet and winter on the upper half.

Next week we will be visiting India!!!  YUMMMYYYY!!!  It's going to be a tasty week!

Animal blubber......Antarctica

For Geography, in honor of winter, we are looking at both the North and South Poles.  This week we studied Antarctica.  We found a website that showed current temperatures at the American Science Station, so we could say that Antarctica was actually 2 degrees warmer than we were that day!  The kids thought that was neat.

While researching kid-friendly websites for our study, I came across this blubber experiment. 

We filled a gallon plastic bag with Crisco shortening.  and had a bowl of ice water also.  Each child felt how cold the water was.  They all said it was freezing.  Then I put a plastic glove on their hand and they stuck it into the Crisco.

I molded the Crisco around their hand so that their hand had an even amount of Crisco around it. 

Then they stuck their "blubber" hand into the ice water.

They all said they could really tell the temperature difference.  Their finger tips was where they felt it the most.  The tips of their fingers were the most "exposed" since they were at the bottom crease of the baggie.  It was fun.

We love Netflix.  We can stream movies for school.  It is well worth the few bucks we spend each month! They had a National Geographic Special on Antarctica (which followed a homeschooling science family).  We watched about Antarctica being the final explored frontier on Earth, an unspoiled gem.  Monday we are watching another penguin special from there.  The benefits of modern homeschooling!!!

This week we also designed our own flags for Antarctica.  Tonight we are watching Arctic Tale since we will be visiting the North Pole next week for school.  So there will be alot more fun in next week's post as we finish our study of the poles.