Early Literacy Arctic Animal Activities
For any teacher looking to engage their students in a fun and educational learning experience, these Arctic animal activities are an ideal choice! Not only do these activities provide students with the opportunity to develop valuable emergent literacy skills such as letter identification and rhyming, but they also present the perfect way for your class to explore some of the world’s most majestic creatures.
Preschoolers will discover continually throughout these printable activities – there’s something magical about discovering together all that our arctic wonders have to offer!
Winter brings with it an array of magical learning opportunities for preschoolers. So with an Arctic Animals theme we can metaphorically bundle up and take the little ones outside to explore this fun preschool theme.
Preschoolers will learn about how animals that live in the arctic region stay warm, as well as how they find food through the winter. These six literacy activities for preschoolers are just the right addition to complete your literacy goals in you arctic animals preschool lesson plans.
Join the fun with these preschool activities and printables!
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Arctic Preschool Centers$8.00
These printables feature all the pre-literacy skills needed to prepare preschoolers for learning to read. There are four components of early literacy, which are:
Early childhood experts are consistently emphasizing their importance in preschool, so when planning your fall theme preschool lesson plans, it’s critical to include each component.
These printable activities can be used in small group work, circle time, or as independent preschool centers for your preschool winter theme activities.
Literacy Activities About Arctic Animals for Kids
Winter is already a magical time of year, but your winter lesson plans aren’t complete without these winter math activities for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Take your class on an adventure with these arctic animal activities.
With all the planning we put into making our arctic animal theme fun, we don’t need to spend extra time worrying about our math and literacy centers. These six printable alphabet and literacy activities use our favorite arctic animals and make learning to read fun for preschoolers.
Snowy Arctic Letter Matching
There is a lot of snow and ice at the North Pole. These letter matching cards feature watercolor snowflakes designed with exactly six points, just like real snowflakes. Preschoolers practice matching the upper case snowflake letter to the lower case arctic animal.
If the entire alphabet is too difficult for your preschooler, just select a handful of letters to work on at a time.
Arctic Animal Word Tracing Cards (Letter Formation)
No arctic preschool theme would be complete without taking some time to learn about all the different animals that live in the northern regions. But there are more than just polar bears and seals! These cards teach preschoolers about some less commonly studied arctic animals like the tern, caribou, humpback whale, puffin or octopus.
Counting Chilly Letters (Print Awareness)
Paying close attention to words and what goes into their formation is an important literacy skill. In fact, knowing the difference between individual letters and the entire word or sentence are critical in early literacy.
Preschoolers select an animal card and count the letters that make up the animal name, then place the card on the corresponding letter counting mat. The animal cards are also sized for pocket charts and soft cube pocket dice, so they can easily be turned into a gross motor game. You can even use them in a sensory bin!
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Arctic Preschool Centers$8.00
Crack the Arctic Code (Phonological Awareness)
Preschoolers will faun over this phonological awareness activity. Preschoolers get to play detective as they “crack the code” using a legend. They will look carefully at each symbol on the animal card and then use the legend to identify what letter of the alphabet corresponds.
Snowy arctic Beginning Sound Mats (Phonemic Awareness)
In preschool, children master letter recognition skills and sounds, and they also learn how to listen for beginning sounds in words. This arctic signs game is a fun learning activity that teaches preschoolers how to match beginning sound pictures with their corresponding letter.
Arctic Animal Word Building (Phonemic Awareness)
Preschoolers can cozy up to the joy of learning with arctic-themed word building cards! Preschoolers practice building words related to arctic animals names by using the provided letter tiles or by using letter manipulatives. By the end of your arctic unit, these words will be like sight words to your preschoolers!
They can also be used in a salt tray for extra writing practice.
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Arctic Preschool Centers$8.00
Children’s Books All About Arctic Animals
Take your arctic lesson plans up a notch by including quality arctic animal books for preschoolers. Here is a short book-list of our favorite books that teach young children about the arctic. These are great to read aloud to introduce your preschoolers to arctic animal activities.
- Berkes, Marianne (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages – 08/21/2021 (Publication Date) – Dawn Publications (Publisher)
- Strattin, Lisa (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 40 Pages – 06/19/2016 (Publication Date) – CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Publisher)
- Creative, Medina (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 40 Pages – 10/12/2023 (Publication Date) – Independently published (Publisher)
- Grinslott, Billy (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 35 Pages – 04/18/2022 (Publication Date) – Arctic & Antarctic Animals Kids Book with Lifelike…
- Elert, Tetiana (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages – 02/11/2021 (Publication Date) – Independently published (Publisher)
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Arctic Preschool Centers$8.00
Get Your Arctic Theme Literacy Centers Here
Your ice cube sensory bins and dramatic play centers might be covered, but what about literacy? Download these arctic animal literacy activities for your preschoolers
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.