The Polar Expedition

Last Friday we pretended we were going to the Poles! We got our tickets and packed our bags. We took a first aid kit and a Garmin, hot chocolate, lights, matches, maps, an icepick to break up the ice and a compass and lots of other things. Then we measured how big a penguin is in the Antarctica. An emperor penguin is 4 feet tall! Then we measured a polar bear in the Arctic. It was 8 feet long! Longer than Daddy who is 6 feet tall. We made a life-size polar bear and penguin out of newspaper.

The next thing we did was an experiment with BLUBBER! We put a bag on our fingers and mummy coated it in butter! Then we put another bag on top. We left our other fingers bare. Then we put both fingers in a bowl of ice. The finger without the blubber got too cold! Polar animals have lots of blubber to keep them warm. We had to find good materials for insulating and test them with ice cubes in warm water. Sawdust works well. Then we had a polar animal quiz. I got 11/12. Pretty good!



Setting up the Polar scenes with our snow!



 We made arctic scenes. I included the NORTHERN LIGHTS and a polar bear catching a seal in an ice hole. Later on we also made igloos out of styrofoam and a dogsled with Daddy out of wood (that was on Saturday). 

We pretended to harpoon  fish with the broomstick and pretended we were Inuit hunters. Mama Lucy helped us gut the fish. We saw his heart and all his intestines.

Harpooning the fish

Laura came for supper, so we were cooking an Arctic meal. We made some bannock (Inuit bread) It was really nice (but we cooked it on a burner with gas not whale blubber). When Laura arrived we had a snowball fight with cruched up newspaper. We made snow that Mama sent from Canada! And we also played "Finger Pull" (an eskimo game). It was a great day.

Snowball fight with Laura



Making bannock



HOW TO MAKE BANNOCK: Mix together 3 1/2 cups flour, 1tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda in a big bowl. Add in 1 1/4 cups yogurt or buttermilk or milk and mix to a dough. Put on the table and knead for 5 minutes (taking turns makes it easier!) Make into rolls. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the rolls, cover and reduce heat. After 3 minutes turn rolls over and cook another 3 minutes until golden brown.



Bannock



Fishcakes

HOW TO PLAY FINGERPULL: two people face each other with right toes touching. They hook middle fingers of right hands and try to pull each other off balance.



(Thank you everyone for sending lots of information!

We are sorting the results and will post them next time)