Arctic & polar animals for kids

What's here

Twelve animals from the coldest places on Earth, most of them dressed in white and all of them better at winter than we are. Tap one and it lumbers, prances, bellows, or hops, then shares a fact about how it beats the cold. There's a bear, a whale, an owl, and a bird with a clown beak, so the variety does a lot of work here.

White-on-white animals also make a sneaky good "find it" game, because half the fun is spotting who's who.

Meet these first

• Polar Bear. Black skin under all that white fur, to soak up the warm sun. Nature's best-kept wardrobe secret.
• Arctic Fox. Snowy white in winter to hide, brown again in summer. Two coats, zero laundry.
• Walrus. Two long tusks and a big bushy mustache. Toddlers respect a mustache.
• Beluga Whale. All white, and it makes so many sounds it's called the sea canary. Sing along.
• Harp Seal Pup. Fluffy white fur to stay cozy on the ice. The single most huggable-looking thing in the app.
• Snowy Owl. Soft white feathers and a head that turns almost all the way around.
• Reindeer. Big branchy antlers and fur even on its nose. Even the nose gets a coat up here.
• Arctic Hare. Big feet that work like snowshoes, which is more than most of us can say for our boots.

The musk ox in its long woolly skirt, the belly-sliding seal, the tunnel-digging lemming, and the puffin with the colorful beak complete the crew.

How to play (60 seconds)

Play cozy detective: "Who has a mustache? Who has antlers? Who's the fluffiest?" Then act out the temperature. Do a big brrr and a shiver, bundle into a pretend ball like a seal pup, then lumber across the room like a polar bear. On the next snowy day, or the next trip past the freezer aisle, "cold" will come out of your toddler on its own. That's the word doing its job.

Good to know

Weather words are everyday words, and this hub hands you cold, snow, ice, and white in one screen. Words a toddler can point at outside the window get practiced daily for free, which beats any flashcard schedule.

Keep exploring

The free first-words cards and 50-word checklist are on the printables page for warm-indoors word practice.

Ice age animals shows who ruled the cold before these guys, woolly mammoth included. Ocean animals has the beluga's warmer-water cousins, birds has more feathered friends for puffin fans, and bedtime fits the cozy mood. The whole lineup is on the homepage.