The Arctic

We headed up to Ungava Bay in northern Canada to see how the Inuit live.  Yay Canada! We took a look at the arctic wildlife, the tundra, the northern lights and the life of arctic people, both past and present.  It was a fun journey.  We read lots of arctic adventure stories and Abishai's imagination was held captive for nearly two weeks!

Some of the books we read.  Still more books were transferred from other libraries for us to pick up.  The boys also enjoyed watching a Canadian Geographic movie about Churchill.

After reading chapters from Polar Bears Past Bedtime, where we learned more about the Arctic, Abishai wanted to be a seal hunter. He asked me if his parka was made of real seal skin.  Upon looking at the tag I told him that it WAS made of 100% seal skin.  His eyes lit up, "Really!? Mommy are you just joking?"  "Yes, I'm joking, but we can pretend."

I showed the boys real pictures of the different topics that were covered as we read through the book: igloos, tundra, polar bears, northern lights, dog sleds, huskies and so much more.

The main book that we read over and over throughout our time in the Arctic was a book called The Very Last First Time which took place close to Ungava Bay.  It was about a little girl named Eva who walked along the bottom of the sea all by herself for the very first time to collect mussels.  While the sea tide was out, a hole was cut into the ice where she would drop through the empty space beneath all the way to the bottom of the ocean floor, quickly gather mussels left behind by the tide, then climb out before the tide returned.  It was an "on the edge of your seat" kind of book.  You asked yourself, "will she make it out in time?"  To help the boys understand more about tides and how Eva walked the bottom of the sea, I placed some rocks into a clear bowl (sea bottom), covered them with water (tide) and then placed plastic wrap over the bowl (ice).  I got the idea from Live and Learn.

I took one of the boys lego men and placed him on top of the "ice" and then cut a hole for the man to drop down while the tide was out.

Lifting the bowl slightly caused the "tide" to go out and our man safely dropped down to the bottom of the sea where it was dry.  The boys also got to see what would happen if the man didn't make it out on time.

We learned from our chapter book that you can learn a lot from watching polar bears.  Here the boys are pretending they are on thin, cracking ice.  Pretending to be polar bears they are dispersing their weight and slowly inching their way to safety by pushing with their toes and pulling with their hands.  A valuable lesson for them to learn in case they are ever in a similar real life situation.

We coloured the Canadian flag. 

And puzzled Canada...

Then coloured it as well.

We also sang the Canadian anthem to an illustrated picture book... over and over again.

Of course we had to dig our own polar bear cave.  Polar bears actually dig caves into snow hills for shelter.

We charted our city's temperature each day.  It was too bad that we weren't charting when our city was -40 and lower.  Burr.

Our local art gallery had Inuit Art on display! HOW SERENDIPITOUS!  They also had igloos on the roof!  The boys enjoyed playing in and around them.

Asher enjoying the sights on the roof of the Art Gallery.

The first things Abishai noticed was the Inuksuk (ee-nook-sook).  He showed such enthusiasm over it.

Inuit woman fighting off a polar bear who is trying to eat the baby slung on her back.

Watching an igloo being constructed.

The Art Gallery had a place where you could make your own Inuit drawing.

Abishai's drawing of an igloo, polar bear and Inuit man with spear.

Such a fun unit.