Lesson video

Hi, team.

It's lovely to see you again.

Welcome to today's lesson with me, Mrs Garrard.

Now in today's lesson we're going to look at how some polar animals are adapted to their habitats.

Let me share my screen.

So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to gather some resources.

Then we're going to look at some polar animals.

The next thing we'll do is look at how those animals are adapted to their polar habitat.

And then finally, we're going to create a snowflake.

There is lots of snow in the polar regions.

So for this lesson you will need your brain to do some really great thinking.

You'll need some paper and some scissors, some glitter, and some glue.

Pause the video now and gather the things that you'll need to do your creating at the end of the lesson.

Come back and press play when you're ready.

Great.

Now that you're back, it's time to look at some polar animals.

Have a look at these animals.

They all live in the polar region.

There are polar bears, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, beluga whale, and a snowy owl.

Have a look carefully at the pictures on the screen and tell me one thing that you notice about these animals.

Tell me one thing that you notice.

I notice that they are all white.

I wonder why.

Let's have a think about how animals adapt to polar habitat, and that might answer our question.

So some ways that polar animals adapt to their surroundings are firstly their colour.

They're white.

They blend into the background.

They're camouflaged.

It helps them to look the same as their background so that they can hunt for their prey.

Or if they're prey, it helps them to hide.

Polar animals have thick fur or feathers to keep them warm.

They also have a special layer of fat that's called blubber.

My turn, blubber.

Your turn, blubber.

Blubber is a layer of fat that helps to keep the animal warm.

They also have water-resistant coats, so their fur or their feathers repel the water so that it doesn't get close to their skin.

It keeps the water away from their skin so that they don't get cold.

And often animals that live in polar regions hibernate.

My turn, hibernate.

Your turn.

when something hibernates it means it sleeps for a long time.

And quite often, animals that live in the polar region, like polar bears, sleep through the coldest months of the year.

Those are all ways that animals have adapted so that they can live in their habitat.

Now that we've met some of the animals of the polar region and we know that it's super snowy and very white, we're going to create a snowflake.

Watch the video and listen carefully to my instructions.

So the first thing I'm going to do is draw around a circle so that I can cut out a circle shape.

I used a small circle to draw around, but I've also drawn a big circle on this paper.

It's tricky for you to see.

I'm going to cut around the big one so that it's easy to see how I fold the paper, because that's really important.

So I'm going to cut around the big circle shape with my scissors, being super careful again.

Look, keeping my fingers away from the blades.

If you're new to using scissors, you could ask an adult to help you to cut out your circle shape.

Now, the next thing we're going to do is fold the paper.

This is really important in creating our snowflake.

So first I'm going to fold it in half so that the edges meet.

Can you see I've made like a semicircle shape? And then in half again.

And then again.

I keep moving it so that the edges meet.

And again, until it's so small that I can't fold it again.

And then I'm going to make some snips with my scissors at the edges of the paper.

I'm doing some triangle-shaped snips.

But you could experiment and use different shapes, make different cuts in your paper.

I'm having to pull the little pieces out, tricky.

Can you see how I'm making a pattern at the bottom of the paper? Pull the little pieces out.

Okay, so first I'm making snips at the bottom, but I'm also going to do the sides, both sides.

And I've snipped the top off, just a tiny piece off of the top.

This is a bit fiddly.

Pulling the little pieces out, Having to use my pinchy fingers to pull the little triangles out.

Now the other side.

When I've finished making all the cuts, I'm going to open out my paper shape.

And you should see that I've created a snowflake.

Can you see the pattern? Now I'm going to decorate my snowflake with some glue and some glitter.

I'm going to drizzle the glue in a pattern on my snowflake.

Can you see? And then I'm going to shake some glitter all over the top so that it sticks to the glue.

A really great thing to do when you're using glitter is to put a piece of paper underneath so when you tip it off you can save the glitter that's left.

There's my snowflake.

Team, I wonder what shapes you will cut out of your snowflake.

You could try cutting different shapes to create different patterns in your snowflake, just like the picture on the screen.

I wonder what shapes you will have to cut to make these snowflakes.

You'll have to experiment and see.

Try making really big snowflakes and really small snowflakes.

You can experiment and see how many different types of snowflakes you can make, because the different cuts will make different patterns and all of your snowflakes will be individual.

Team, I've really enjoyed this lesson today.

But now it's come to an end and it's time for me to say goodbye.

But I'll see you again soon in another lesson.

Bye, team.