arctic animals Archives

Winter is rapidly approaching and it seems like lots of parents and educators are getting ready for the cold season.

So, we thought we’d share a new set of free printable flashcards today – Arctic Animal flash cards!

I love learning about the Arctic with the kids. The animals that live there are so varied (and adorable).

Plus, there are all kinds of fascinating behaviors to study: from penguins that huddle together to keep warm to Arctic hares that lighten in color as they age for an amazing camouflage.

If your kids enjoy using these flashcards, be sure to check out our Arctic Animal Pattern Activity for another way to make winter animals into a math lesson!

What’s in the Free Arctic Animal Flash Cards Pack?

To use these flashcards, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer paper
Scissors
Laminator (Helps cards stay sturdy longer)

This flash card pack includes eight different Arctic animals, including:

Walrus
Sea Lion
Arctic Hare
Arctic Fox
Arctic Wolf
Orca Whale
Polar Bear
and Beluga Whale!

One set includes both the animals and their names, while another features only the animals.

Kids can match them up or even cut them out to make a collage of winter scenes.

We used them to play a matching game with our preschooler.

She’d look for the animal name card and match it with the animal picture card.

Pretty soon she was naming all the Arctic animals on her own!

How to Use the Arctic Animal Flash Cards to Teach Patterns

With Roo (who’s in first grade), I decided to start practicing simple math patterns and we used our Arctic Animal Flashcards to do it!

I printed two sets of the cards, including the set with animal names and the set without.

Then I laid out two cards from each set: Roo’s job was to discern the pattern and then continue it. I started with an ABABAB pattern.

The look on his face when he said “Oh, I know this!” was precious.

He did the top row first…

…then the bottom.

So I set up a second group of patterns – this time, featuring different animal cards and an ABCABCABC pattern.

Success!

Afterward, he really just wanted to play with the flashcards, so getting him to stop and smile was a bit of a challenge. 🙂

But this was a super simple pattern activity for first grade, especially if your child is new to learning patterns or if he or she needs a little refresher on simple patterns before moving on to more complex sequences.

Scroll down to get your free Arctic Animal Flash Cards!

Books about Arctic Animals for Kids:

For even more arctic animal fun, try these great kids’ books about arctic animals!

1. Polar Animals – Scholastic

2. Amazing Arctic Animals – Penguin

3. Over in the Arctic: Where the Cold Winds Blow – Marianne Berkes

4. Arctic A to Z – Wayne Lynch

Be sure to check out our other winter activities!

Plus, get more inspiration on my Winter Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

To download your free set of Arctic Animal flash cards, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll receive access to these flashcards, plus loads of other learning printables, in our exclusive Subscriber Library!