Arctic Unit Study: History, Geography, & Extras

This History and Geography section of the Arctic Unit Study adds in history, geography, music, sensory, folktales, & family fun to your family’s unit study.

These Arctic activities are perfect for homeschooling families who learn together. Learn about Arctic heroes and explorers like Balto and Togo from the original Iditarod, and Matthew Henson, as well as the Arctic habitat and geography. And I’ve included unit study extras like fine and gross motor activities, sensory skills, and family movie recommendations.

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Arctic Folktale

This Arctic folktale comes from the Inuit people. The Polar Bear Son retold and illustrated by Lydia Dabcovich is an old tale of a woman who cares for an orphan polar bear, that grows up to hunt for her. Dabcovich has illustrated this book in the style of the Greenland Inuit. You can also watch a read-aloud copy of this book on YouTube.

Arctic Unit Study History

The Race to Nome and the Iditarod

Your kids will enjoy learning about the famous dog, Balto, who lead his sled dog team to save the children in Nome in 1925. Balto is so famous that there’s even a statue of him in New York City’s Central Park!

Here are a couple of books about Balto for the younger set:

My Little Golden Book About Balto by Charles Lovitt and illustrated by Sophie Allsopp is more of a non-fiction book of facts, rather than an actual story, so I’d reserve it for kids old enough to listen even if it’s not an actual story.

The Incredible Life of Balto by Meghan McCarthy

For upper elementary or middle schoolers, read The Adventures of Balto: The Untold Story of Alaska’s Famous Iditarod Sled Dog by Pat Chargot

For high schoolers, check out the book, The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury and Lainey Salisbury, for a well-researched account of the 1925 attempt to save the children of Nome from dying of diphtheria. Also available on Kindle and Audible.

Although Balto got all the credit for getting the life-saving serum to Nome (he led the team the last 50 miles), another dog, Togo, is the lesser-known hero who led the sled dog team for 350 grueling miles.

Learn about Togo’s story in Togo by Robert J. Blake

Books about the Modern Day Iditarod Race

Picture Book: Akiak: A Tale From the Iditarod by Robert J. Blake

Upper grades: Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. The author of the Hatchet series writes an autobiography for upper elementary and middle school readers. He was so interested in the Iditarod that he led a team of sled dogs in the race. This book tells his story.

Arctic Explorers & Daring Rescues

Arctic Explorer: The Story of Matthew Henson (Trailblazer Biography) by Jeri Ferris. Henson began as Robert Peary’s servant as Peary explored the Arctic, determined to make his way to the North Pole. Henson quickly proved how invaluable his help was to the expedition. For 4th grade and up.

For upper elementary and middle school readers, read Into the Ice: The Story of Arctic Exploration by Lynn Curlee, for a comprehensive look at the explorers of the Arctic Region. The explorers begin with the Inuit and ends with Peary and Cook. Note for parents: does mention cannibalism and toes breaking off from frostbite.

For high schoolers, I recommend listening to this audiobook of Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, narrated by Simon Prebble.

There are dozens of rescue stories from the Arctic region. It’s an uncompromising land that only the very lucky and strong survive. Here are a few selections for your teens.

The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure by Martin W. Sandler For 9th grade and up.

Ice Drift by Theodore Taylor, who also wrote The Cay tells a story from 1868 of two boys whose ice floe broke off and they drifted away from their family. They are rescued 6 months later, 500 miles away. For 4th grade and up.

Arctic Unit Study Geography

Create a salt dough map like this one from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.

Be sure to get the printable Arctic Expedition Journal from the Language Arts section of the Arctic Unit Study for mapping locations in the Arctic Circle.

Learn about the biome of the Arctic.

Read One Small Square: Tundra by Donald Silver and Patricia Wynne.

Sing this In the Tundra song with Sherri Boekwig’s Sing and Learn Songs to learn about the arctic tundra.

Older kids can watch this video about the Tundra biome in this Secrets of World Climate.

Arctic Unit Study Music

Listen to this piece by Peter Nanasi, a contemporary American composer, entitled Aurora.

Or listen to Nanasi’s music that accompanies this amazing photography video of the Northern Lights from Night Light Films, a company based in the largest, the northernmost city in the world, Tromso, Arctic Norway. Nanasi composed the music specifically for this short film, Into the Polar Night. The music and photography are incredible!

Inuit Throat Singing

Inuit women play a game while the men are out hunting. The game is singing with their throat and whoever laughs or messes up first loses. Throat singing makes noise while breathing in and out.

Here’s a video of a couple of young girls talking about and demonstrating throat singing from Rogers TV.

And another video of young women throat singing the song, Love Song.

Just for fun, see if you can sing with your throat.

Arctic Unit Study Gross and Fine Motor

Fine Motor

Create an Arctic small world with some fake snow, a plastic mirror (that way it doesn’t easily break) and some Arctic region animals. We like this Sarafi Ltd. Arctic Toob so much that we have 2 of them! But this one by Wild Republic is very similar and will work very well for the Science Sorting worksheet in the Arctic Science Unit Study section.

Gross Motor

Use the Gross Motor Arctic Action Cards from the Free Resource Library. Cut out the cards and either draw one and do what it says, or use a large pocket die and slip the cards into the plastic sleeves on each side.

Oftentimes the dollar store has these dice at Back to School time, or you can grab one on Amazon any day of the year. Or simply tape the cards to a lightweight square box and use that as a die to roll.

Arctic Unit Study Sensory and Body Awareness

Check out these snow themed sensory bins or create some fake snow dough. Or you may want to try this “invitation to play” Arctic Playdough Activity.

Arctic Unit Study Family Approved Movies

Sled Dog Soldiers NR 2012 This short film tells how sled dogs helped secure a victory in World War I.

The Great Alaskan Race PG 2019 A family film about the race to get the serum to Nome in 1925. There are a few instances of language in this otherwise good movie. For more details, see PluggedIn.com‘s review.

Disney’s Togo PG 2019 Starring Willem Dafoe and Julianne Nicholson. This live-action movie is more like one of Disney’s older movies; it’s really good! It was even nominated for PluggedIn.com’s best teen movie of 2019! It has 2 profanities which give it the PG rating. Find it on Disney+. Hopefully, it will be released on DVD soon!

More Arctic Unit Study Ideas

Be sure to follow my Pinterest board North Pole & South Pole for more great hands-on activities and ideas for your Arctic unit study history lessons!

Don’t forget to pin this post so you can refer back to it during your Arctic unit study history activities.