Life in the Arctic tundra: take students on an imaginary expedition to the frozen desert of the Arctic tundra - Activities

Instructor, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Mackie Rhodes

Getting Started

Set up a wintry reading display of tundra-themed books (see "Arctic Resources," page 47). Add laminated articles or photos from magazines such as National Geographic Kids and Science World, and props such as toy animals, furry earmuffs, mittens, ski goggles, maps, and a globe. Then introduce your unit with the Animals of the Arctic Tundra Reproducible on page 48. Invite students to record their questions and discoveries in "Arctic Field Journals," decorated with their own drawings of tundra animals. You can also create a KWL chart by having students add sticky notes to an Arctic map.

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Bundled in Fur

Many Arctic animals, such as musk oxen, wolves, and foxes, grow two layers of fur to help insulate them in subzero winter temperatures. The animals shed this extra layer each spring, when temperatures rise and the extra layer is no longer needed.

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Activity: To demonstrate how extra fur benefits animals, fill the bottom of a cooler or tank with ice. Invite students to take turns putting on a pair of cotton garden gloves, which represent a single coat of fur. On one hand, slide a large leather glove over the cotton glove to represent an animal's additional coat of fur. Then have the student hold both hands above the ice for a minute or two. Which hand stays the warmest? Why? Give each student a chance to try this experiment.

Camouflage Coats

Many tundra animals (such as foxes, hares, wolves, and polar bears) and tundra birds (such as snowy owls and terns) grow white outer fur or white feathers to help camouflage them on the snow-covered winter landscape.

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Activity: To help students understand how camouflage works, add a tundra ecosystem model to your Arctic reading center. Fill up a plastic swimming pool with white quilt batting and crumpled white tissue paper. Or have students brainstorm other materials that they can arrange to resemble the snowy tundra. Then invite them to add photographs, drawings, clay models, and stuffed versions of some of the tundra's permanent animal and bird residents. Once these are all in place, ask students to step back to view the tundra scene they've created. Does the snowy landscape help or hinder their ability to spot the creatures? Why?

Wolf Packs and Fox Kits

Arctic wolves and Arctic foxes share many traits. Both live in groups (either packs or kits), and have an important part to play in the arctic ecosystem. But wolves are much larger and hunt large mammals, such as caribou.

Activity: Invite your class to form two teams, the Arctic Wolves and the Arctic Foxes. Encourage them to find out how their chosen animal lives and survives. What are its habits, life cycle, and adaptations to the harsh cold? What is the sound of its call? Then as each team presents their new knowledge to the class, have students create Venn diagrams (labeled "wolves," "foxes," and "both") with words or illustrations. Each team can use their diagrams to write a collaborative book on their animal, complete with a team logo.

The Tundra Comes to Life

Some Arctic animals and birds have adapted to survive the harsh winters, while others live there only in the summer. These creatures arrive in spring to raise their young and eat the abundant food. In the winter, they migrate southward to warmer climates. Every tundra animal, bird, and plant plays a crucial role in a food chain.

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Activity: Ask students to each pick an animal that lives on the tundra and research more about its life cycle. Ask students: When does your animal live on the tundra? How does it fit into an Arctic food chain? Then ask them to illustrate this chain on a large sheet of paper, with a speech bubble drawn beside each animal or plant. Inside the bubbles, have students write a sentence from each organism's perspective describing how the organism contributes to the chain of life. For example, in a chain of a poppy flower, an Arctic hare, and an Arctic fox, the hare's speech bubble could say, "I eat poppies. Sometimes I become food for foxes," while the fox's bubble could say, "I eat hares, lemmings, and fish. My waste fertilizes the tundra soil."

Willows in the (Arctic) Wind

Tundra willow trees grow to only about 6" tall and hug the ground to escape the fierce Arctic winds, which would topple taller trees. In the winter, snow blankets these0 little trees and protects them from sharp tundra ice crystals.

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Activity: Invite students to create models to demonstrate the effect of wind on trees of different sizes. Have them twist two pipe cleaners together to create a tree trunk, leaving about 1" loose at one end to represent the roots. Have them attach and shape pipe-cleaner branches that extend in several directions. Then ask students to shape another pair of pipe cleaners into a tiny, short tree with long, low limbs and roots. "Plant" both trees in a mound of clay "soil" and press firmly onto a tabletop. Ask students to blow on the trees as hard as they can. How do the two trees respond? What happens when tall trees are exposed to strong, sustained wind?