Animal Adaptations

We learned that animals adapt to cold weather in many ways.  Some animals, like polar bears and penguins live in extremely cold weather all the time. To make sure they stay warm, their body's have a thick layer of blubber.  To understand this, we first stuck our hand in a bowl of ice cold water.  BOY was that cold!  Then, we put our hand inside a "blubber glove" that was inside the same bowl of cold water.  Our hand stayed SO warm, we couldn't even tell that it was in ice cold water.    

To make a blubber glove fill a gallon Ziplock bag with Crisco.  Make sure the Crisco coats both sides on the inside of the bag.  Then, put another bag inside, so your hands do not touch the Crisco. 

We also learned that animals in our areas adapt to the cold by either migrating, hibernating, or growing a thicker coat of fur.  Mrs. Wanke challenged us to make a shelter that could fit 5 animals inside.  The shelter also had to keep the cold air out and was insulated.  We came up with some really great shelters.