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Imaginative Play Scene: Arctic Play Scene

arcitc play scene

It’s hot already here in Brisbane, and so water play happens many afternoons.  My son and I set up an arctic play scene on a particularly hot day, and he enjoyed playing with the cold water and ice.  Below is how we put it all together.

Materials

Arctic animal figures (or any other toys)

Large plastic container (underbed storage container is perfect)

Empty plastic container (like a ice-cream container)

Cups

Food colouring (optional)

Step 1

Fill an icecream container or other plastic container with water and add a little blue food colouring if desired.  I also filled a few plastic cups with water (and used red and green food colouring). Freeze overnight.

arctic play scene

Step 2

Fill a large plastic container with water.

Play Scene -- antartic

Step 3

Add ice cups, ice block, and more regular ice (if you want) to the large water container.

arctic play scene

Step 4

Small cracks can form when the large block of ice is placed in the water but the block holds together well, as you can see in the pics lower below.

arctic play scene -- polar bear

arctic play scene

ice blocks arctic play scene

Step 5

Add a few arctic animals (or any toys really) and play. It’s lovely and cool. My son LOVED this activity.

arctic play scene

arctic play scene

Animials in the Arctic

The arctic theme is only an inspiration, and I don’t force educational learning while my children play. So we set up the play scene with a particular theme in mind but the children can add anything they like to the play environment.  That said, it can be interesting to link play to real life so we set up the arctic scene with animals we found around the house that fit.  I love the Schleich range, and they have cute arctic animal figurines, so even an investment in a few polar bears can take this play scene to another level.

arctic animials

Later that day, my son and I spent 5 minutes googling polar bear pictures. Cute! And we also talked about what other animals live in the polar regions.

polar bear

Image credit: Bearlife.org

animials in the arctic

Image credit: educapoles.org

polar ecosystem

Image credit: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA)

Links

More Imaginative Play Scenes

Arctic Animals (K – 3) A Seaworld Publication

Disclaimer

Read my disclaimer

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6 Comments

  • Reply
    What Motherhood Taught Me About Time
    October 23, 2012 at 7:52 am

    […] It means spontaneously googling cute polar bear pictures with my son before bedtime, after playing with our Arctic play scene. […]

  • Reply
    Penny
    October 24, 2012 at 5:38 am

    This is awesome Kell! Miss Possum had just watched Ice Age and asked about why the ice was melting. I might use that for an activity to help her understand. Love!

  • Reply
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    November 5, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    […] in Brisbane, and we are, once again, pulling out the ice trays for drinks. I recently set up an ice activity for the children and while I was at it, I decided to make ice sculptures.  The ice sculptures are easy — EASY […]

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    Dinosaur Ice Blocks
    December 19, 2012 at 12:57 am

    […] Arctic Play Scene […]

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    Ice Treasure Hunt
    January 15, 2013 at 12:18 pm

    […] looked like fun.  My son loves ice, and we’ve done different things before using it in play: Arctic Play Scene, Ice Cube Painting, Dinosaur Ice Blocks.  The idea of the treasure hunt is to use tools  (or […]

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    November 4, 2013 at 7:11 am

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