Fill the reading area with books on polar animals such as "Animal Babies in Polar Lands" by Jennifer Schofield, "Far North in the Arctic: Counting Alaska's Animals" by Cory Hansen and "In Arctic Waters" by Laura Crawford. Include books about animals at the South Pole such as "Little Penguin's Tale" by Audrey Wood and "If You Were a Penguin" by Wendell and Florence Minor. After reading a story about polar bears, hang pictures of polar bears on art easels and let preschoolers paint polar bear pictures. After reading about penguins, provide toilet paper rolls, wiggly eyes, and black and white construction paper to make toilet paper roll penguins.
Fill the classroom water table with water and ice cubes. Place regular cube-shaped ice cubes in the table as well as flat ice sheets made by filling container lids with water and freezing them. Let preschoolers explore how ice floats in water, but only the top part of the ice cube sticks out, like an iceberg. See if preschoolers can float the flat sheets of ice like an ice floe. Allow students to stack small plastic animals on the ice floes to see how they float. Make waves in the water and see what happens to the ice and the plastic animals sitting on top.
Have preschoolers race across the gym while waddling like penguins. Give each preschooler a small or medium-size ball. Show preschoolers how to place the ball between their knees and squeeze their legs together to keep the ball from falling out. On your signal, have them waddle across the gym without dropping the ball. Invite preschoolers to race like other polar animals, such as walking all fours like polar bears, sliding on their bellies like arctic seals or hopping like arctic hares.
Teach preschoolers fun songs and chants about polar animals. Sing "Have You Ever Seen a Penguin?" and encourage preschoolers to swim, slide and waddle around the room during the song. Jump, shake and move around while echo chanting "Walking Through the Arctic." Provide drums, rhythm sticks and other musical instruments for preschoolers to set songs such as "Marching Penguin" to music.