• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • FAQ
    • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Community
  • Books
    • Books for Children by Age
    • Book Lists
    • Holiday Books and Activities
  • Reading Ideas
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
    • Preschoolers
    • Kindergarteners & Early Elementary
  • Writing Ideas
  • Parental Involvement: Building Partnerships
  • Start Here!
    • WELCOME TO THE GROWING BOOK BY BOOK COMMUNITY
    • Subscribe
    • Contact
    • FAQ
      • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Book Lists
    • Books for Children by Age
    • Book Lists
    • Holiday Books and Activities
  • Book Activities
  • Early Literacy
    • Alphabet Activities
    • Circle Time Activities
    • Phonological Awareness Activities

Growing Book by Book

  • Family Involvement
    • Start a Family Dinner Book Club
  • Start Here
  • Store
discovering with babies playing with toddlers exploring with preschoolers building with beginning readers

Bring joy and play into children's lives through books.

Yes, please!
Home » Reading Ideas » Getting Ready to Read » Polar Bear Sound Activity

Polar Bear Sound Activity

January 6, 2016 • 10 Comments

Sharing is caring!

3797 shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Brrrr, it’s chilly!  But, we are getting our bodies moving with this super versatile polar bear sound activity.  This  game can be played five different ways to build phonological awareness!

It’s a perfect literacy activity to use with multiple ages or to repeat over and over to build different skills.

A phonological awareness game that can be played five different ways to build phonemic awareness. It's a great gross motor activity for a polar bear theme unit too.

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

First, do you know the classic book, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.?  It’s a fun book to read before playing this game because it is all about listening and speaking.  And, that is exactly what phonological awareness is all about.

Phonological awareness can be developed using lots of playful oral games with kids over and over.  This game is designed to be played multiple times and changed to fit the needs of your child.

SETTING UP THE POLAR BEAR SOUND ACTIVITY

Materials needed for 1-2 players: 15 white pieces of paper, masking tape, Polar Bear Sound sheet, and master call sheet

polar bear sound game finish line

  1. Pick a large or long open space to play the game.  Randomly place the 15 pieces of white paper (the icebergs) on the floor.  Use masking tape to help the papers stay in place.  Space the papers so that the kids can reach the icebergs by stretching just a bit.
  2. Place the Polar Bear Sound sheet at the opposite end of the start line.
  3. Print your master call sheet.

TIME TO PLAY POLAR BEAR SOUND

polar bear sound activity for building phonological awareness with preschoolers

The kids will stand at the starting point.  Each time a question is answered correctly, they take a turn stepping to an “iceberg” within reach.  Players can move in any direction, but can not occupy an iceberg with another player.

If a question is answered incorrectly, then the player must remain on the original iceberg.

falling off the iceberg in the polar bear sound game

If a player falls in the “water” while moving, he or she has to move back to the original iceberg. The player basically loses a turn.

The first player to reach “Polar Bear Sound” wins.

Here are five versions of the game.  Choose the level that best suits your child.

Segmenting Sentences Into Words

Tell each player a short sentence.  The player has to count how many words are in the sentence.  Encourage the child to make a fist and put up one finger for each word he or she hears.

For example, “Polar bears eat seals.” has four words.

Rhyming

Say a word and have the child say a word that rhymes.

The word “ice” rhymes with nice, slice or dice.

Segmenting Words into Syllables

Say a word.  Have the child repeat the word and then clap how many sounds they hear in the word.

For example, “Artic” has two syllables (arc-tic).

Identifying Beginning Sounds

Say a word and ask the child to tell you the beginning sound he or she hears in the word.  It helps for the child to repeat the word before identifying the beginning sound.

The word “tundra” begins with /t/.

Segmenting Phonemes

Call out a word.  Have the child repeat the word and then stretch it out like a rubber band saying each individual sound (phoneme).

The word fox has three phonemes /f/  /o/  /x/.

Have fun building phonological awareness with this oral polar bear sound activity that also builds gross motor skills.

This week’s Early Childhood Education Team theme is the tundra  Visit the links below for more great early childhood activities related to the tundra theme.

But before you explore…

P.S. For more great book recommendations and  literacy ideas, we send out a weekly newsletter. You can see a sample here.  If you like what you see, sign up to receive it for FREE each week.

Arctic Animal Sensory Writing Tray by Fun-A-Day

Home-made Books: Tundra by Powerful Mothering

Arctic Animals Writing Prompts by The Educators’ Spin On It

Why Are Polar Bears White? | Animal Adaptations on the Arctic Tundra by Raising Lifelong Learners

Tundra Animal Sharing and Halving by Rainy Day Mum

Arctic Edition, Mother May I Gross Motor Game by Tiny Tots Adventures

Arctic Animal Matching Games by Life Over C’s

Arctic Animals Preschool Science:  Blubber and Ice Explorations! By The Preschool Toolbox Blog

Science Fun-Learning About the Woolly Bear Caterpillar by Capri + 3

Arctic Preschool Letter Hunt by Learning 2 Walk

 

 

Did you get your free list of Books Kids Will Beg You to Read?

Get It

Sharing is caring!

3797 shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

10 Comments Filed Under: All categories, Getting Ready to Read Tagged With: phonological awareness

About Jodie Rodriguez

Jodie Rodriguez is a mom of two young boys and an early childhood/elementary educator with over 20 years of experience. Jodie's passion is helping parents, teachers, librarians and anyone else interested in nurturing and reaching ALL of our youngest growing readers.

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published.

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Raising Creative Children says

    January 9, 2016 at 1:31 pm

    I love the combination of movement and engagement here! The title made me think this would involve a lot more sound and music making – can imagine a version that is less focused on the language literacy aspect and more on creative sound and music making where each iceberg is an opportunity to make some related sound and music. Will eventually try this out!

    Reply
  2. alecia says

    January 8, 2016 at 2:57 pm

    We are going to use this soon! We are big fans of all types of sounds and LOVE this book.

    Reply
  3. Nicolette says

    January 7, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    this is a great idea! Keeping it for when we reach this point! 😀

    Reply
  4. Theresa says

    January 6, 2016 at 9:45 pm

    What a wonderful game. We will have to try this out! I like the variations.

    Reply
  5. Cerys says

    January 6, 2016 at 11:45 am

    Fantastic will print this out for tomorrow it will get us up and moving and working on phonics at the same time.

    Reply
  6. Natasha Johnson-Ivy says

    January 6, 2016 at 7:20 am

    We are playing this today! My kids have been loving movement games and I can see us having fun with this one.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Polar Bears | Science in Storytime says:
    November 23, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    […] Polar bear sound activity: https://growingbookbybook.com/polar-bear-sound-activity/ […]

    Reply
  2. Arctic Preschool Letter Hunt - Learning 2 Walk says:
    January 8, 2016 at 6:40 am

    […] Polar Bear Sound Activity by Growing Book by Book […]

    Reply
  3. Polar Bear Sharing Activity for Early Years says:
    January 6, 2016 at 11:09 am

    […] Polar Bear Sound Activity by Growing Book by Book […]

    Reply
  4. Home-made Books: Tundra - Powerful Mothering says:
    January 6, 2016 at 6:34 am

    […] Polar Bear Sound Activity by Growing Book by Book […]

    Reply

What can we help you find?

Subscribe to Growing Book by Book

lead magnet for growing book bybook
Welcome to Growing Book by Book!  Learn about the creator, Jodie Rodriguez.

Find More

alphabet activities
book lists for children
circle time button

Set Up for Circle Time Success

month by month circle time songs


Copyright ©2023, Growing Book by Book. All Rights Reserved. Custom design by Pixel Me Designs | Privacy Policy