Continents Boxes Blog Hop - Day 6 - Antarctica

Today is the day to explore Antarctica.

Honey from Mondorfment sent some great swap items for Antarctica.

In addition to what is in the photos, Honey sent us some awesome cards and files to go with Antarctica, but they are not in these photos...

Then, another Honey, Honey from Sunflower Schoolhouse, made a whole collection of penguin math games and I was the lucky winner who won her adorable penguin themed activities.
So, a great deal of thanks to two Honeys.

Recently, we started to explore Antarctica, not so much from the standpoint of the geographical features of Antarctica, but more about the four different species of penguins that live in Antarctica, as the boys wanted to learn about penguins.

We will go back and revisit Antarctica  in the future months to explore more about the continent itself, the other animals who live there, and a bit about the research that takes place in Antarctica.

One thing that I learned as we started to study penguins is that there are so many misconceptions about penguins and Antarctica. You cannot even imagine how many picture books I found while compiling resources that had penguins and polar bears living side by side! These are published books for children!
While it is certainly possible that a penguin and a polar bear could be neighbors at the zoo, they would never bump into each other in the wild, as penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere and Polar Bears only live in the Arctic Circle.

It wasn't so bad when it was a nonfiction picture book that clearly discussed the "Polar Regions", but it is such a disservice to do to children to have a children's picture book that makes it seem like the animals live near each other. Another thing is that while exploring penguins, we found out that there are actually 17 different species of penguins, and that only four of the 17 actually live in Antarctica. So, again, some misinformation, as some books for children make it seem as if nearly every kind of penguin lives there.

What it taught me is that there is much to learn about Antarctica and we have only begun to scratch the surface.  We will definitely revisit Antarctica in the future and explore life there beyond the four species of penguins who call it home.

Just be sure to keep your eyes peeled if you plan to study Antarctica as far as the books you use.

If you have nonfiction selections that compare and contrast the "Polar Regions", as long as that is laid out to child, it could work...but not if the book makes it appear as if the animals are pals on the ice.
Honey from Mondorfment made us the most adorable felted polar bear that I have ever seen.

When we get into doing the Arctic Circle, I will showour adorable little polar bear off in many of the posts for that...it is just so precious and it was so nice of her to take on doing both Polar Regions for the wonderful swap she organized.

Well, here is what we have so far for Antarctica...

These three part cards may have come from some nice materials that Stephanie sent us a while ago...not sure, but thanks to whomever gave us these...these could be blown up, duplicated, and made into three part cards. Have not gotten around to doing that just yet.

More cards about Antarctica, along with a card about Orcas. The Orca card has information on the back side of the card, too.

Cute image of a penguin in a ribbon trimmed frame from our swap with Honey. Thanks Honey.

This is the packet made by the very creative Honey Brown of Sunflower Schoolhouse. I was lucky enough to win this as a blog prize giveaway so thanks to Honey and Sunflower Schoolhouse. Think that the drawing was through Hip Homeschool Moms so thanks to them as well for having the drawing.

An adorable little penguin given to us by the fabulous Honey R at Mondorfment.

This pile of penguins is a mix of some little ones we had and some that Honey sent to us as part of the swap. For activities to go with these, they work great as math counters in conjunction with the math packet from the other Honey. they also work as a sorting activity, where the boys can sort based upon either species of penguin or else " lives in Antarctica" and " Does not live in Antarctica"...

Cute bag that Honey scoped out for her swapmates. this bag worked great, as we kept some of the paper pieces for the penguin lapbook components in the bag as we did the penguin lapbooks.. I will take some shots of the lapbooks next week...

Awesome book about Antarctica. The illustrations are just so beautiful.

Great informational picture book with lovely illustrations to boot.

This awesome resource was given to us as a present by Jody and her family. Thanks to our friends for this great book. Lots of excellent info. about Antarctica as well as the various species of penguins.

Nice wooden egg from our recent swap with Honey. Little Bro loved holding this. We tried to replicate the Emperor penguin daddy thing of the boys holding the egg on their feet, but Little Bro preferred to snuggle with the egg with his hands...

this nice book is from the dollar spot at Target...it is a great little book and lays out animals from both poles, but makes it clear that there are animals from the Arctic Circle and from the Antarctic Circle too...

Cool money from Antarctica. Honey got this for her swapmates. the boys have decided that they would prefer to see animals on our money here in the US too...

Antarctic money...thanks again, Honey...

This is an absolutely awesome work made by Honey for the swap. It features a calendar of the penguin's year. Basically, walks you through what is going on in the penguin's life each month. There is a control of error card so that a child can check his or her work. This is by far one of Big Bro's favorite works of the year!

View of Antarctica from space. Has four activities on the back side of this card. 

Happy Friday!