Learning goal
- To explore and understand life in a cold place, comparing and contrasting it with our own lives.
EYFS outcomes
Development matters
Understanding the world
- Recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries.
- Recognise some environments that are different from the one in which they live.
Characteristics of effective learning
- Playing and exploring.
- Creating and thinking critically.
See Development Matters (non-statutory curriculum guidance).
Support and challenge
Adults can use the opportunity to discuss and/or support with:
- Having other books about cold or polar environments available for the children (both fiction and non-fiction) to show various places, lived experiences and perspectives.
- Providing tablets or computers for the children to explore Google Earth further, supervised to ensure safety, allowing them to discover more about the Arctic and Antarctica.
- Having materials available for the children to create their own polar landscapes or animals using a mix of textures, such as cotton wool for snow and ice and paint for the Northern Lights.
- Giving clear, simple instructions for each role-play scenario and helping the children to select appropriate props that they might need in a polar region.
- Helping the children with the polar checklist by reading each item and discussing it.
- Asking questions that require more than a yes or no answer, such as “Why do you think it’s important to wear gloves in the snow?”
Key vocabulary
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blizzard
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explorer
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ice
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polar
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scientists
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snow
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snowstorm
