We love sharing activities and crafts for toddlers with you and today’s post is perfect for a bit of winter crafting!
This easy polar bear craft for toddlers is suitable for preschoolers and older kids too but the materials it uses mean that it’s a great fine motor activity for little hands.
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What You'll Find on This Page
Polar Bear Craft
My kids have always been really keen on polar bears ad to be honest I am too, there’s something incredibly majestic about them.
As well as being great creatures to learn about and make as part of a winter craft polar bears are also a great choice if you are learning about climate change due to the way their lives have been affected by this.
While I’ve called this activity a polar bear craft for toddlers, it’s obviously suitable for older children too, especially preschoolers.
If you do choose to make this polar bear art with a young child you will need to do any cutting out for them and adapt it to their needs, abilities and interests and you can find some ideas for how to adapt this craft below.
As with any craft with children, you will need to supervise the activity constantly, especially as pom poms can be a choking hazard.
Craft Supplies
- Colored card (I’ve used dark blue card stock)
- Black cardstock or black marker pen
- White paint
- Plate or tray
- Pom pom
- Glue
- Googly eyes or scrap paper and a black marker pen
- Scissors
Free Polar Bear Template
As you can see this craft is done freehand, if you would prefer to use an outline to help you then check out our adorable polar bear printable template which is free to download.
Polar Bear Activity
Pour your white paint onto your plate and dab your pom pom into it.
On a dark colored piece of card stock or construction paper dab the paint covered pom pom into a circle shape to form the polar bear’s face.
Using the paint covered pom pom draw two more circle shapes to form the bear’s ears then use the pom pom to color in the bears face and ears.
To make the bear’s eyes either stick on googly eyes or cut a circle out of white paper or cardstock and draw a black circle onto them the use a dab of glue to stick these onto your polar bear’s face.
Finally to make the bear’s nose ad mouth either cut these shapes from black cardstock or wait until the paint is dry and draw them on using a black marker.
Polar Bear Books for Kids
When it’s cold outside there’s nothing nicer than snuggling up inside with a story! Why not check out these polar bear books and find something new to read with your toddler.
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- There’s A Bear On My Chair by Ross Collins
- Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
- Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle
Ways To Adapt This Polar Bear Craft
Using pom poms is a fun way to help with fine motor skills, plus I think that anything other than a normal paintbrush is a bit more interesting for kids!
One of the nice things about this craft that makes it good for toddlers is that it really doesn’t matter if you don’t make a perfect bear shape, any pom pom prints that go off course could of course be snowflakes!
If you did want to add some more snowflakes to this picture you could use a different sized pom pom or try snowflake stickers or stampers, my kids are normally of the ‘more is more’ frame of mind so I know these would be a winner with them! Another idea could be finger painted snowflakes or perhaps using the end of a cotton bud.
You could also go ahead and paint on the whole of the polar bears body.
Don’t like getting hands dirty? You could use a clothes peg to hold the pom pom.
No pom poms? How about using scrunched up aluminium foil or you could even use small potatoes for potato printing!
More Polar Bear Crafts
Got some paper plates at home? This polar bear craft for kids is one that I made with my children, it was so much fun and is super simple to make.
This paper bag polar bear craft has two designs so you can adapt it to your child’s abilities. It also makes a great DIY polar bear puppet to play with!
This easy collage craft uses our free printable template and makes a great polar bear craft for toddlers too as they can tear and stick the craft materials down.
It’s also a really good way to use up any spare craft materials you have, we’ve included lined paper and cotton balls too.
Equipment
- Pom pom
- Reusable plate
- Glue
Materials
- White paint
- Coloured card
- Googly eyes or scrap paper and black pen
- Back card or black marker pen
Instructions
- Pour some white paint into a reusable plate to make it easier to access.
- On the coloured card make a large circle for the polar bears face by dipping the pom pom into white paint and then dabbing it on to the card.
- Make two smaller circles at the top to make the polar bear's ears. You could use different sized pom poms for this if you liked.
- Using the pom pom 'colour in' the polar bear by filling his face with paint using the pom poms dabbed in the white paint.
- Glue on googly eyes for your polar bear.
- To make the polar bears mouth either cut a triangular shape and mouth shape from black card and glue these on - the cutting will likely need to be done by a grown up if you are making this with a toddler, or wait until the paint is dry and draw the polar bear's features on with a black marker pen.
Notes
I tried this at my home and it’s made perfectly as you said in this post.
Thank you for sharing.
Ah thank you! I’m so glad it worked for you – hope you had fun making it!