We were playing around today and rediscovered a game we haven't played in a few months. Coincidentally, it matched our theme of Antarctica so we thought we'd share it with you.
It's called Don't Break the Ice and is pretty fun and easy for all ages, although a grown up (or patient kid) will probably need to set it up. It features blocks of "ice" held by tension in a square rack. There is one large square that holds a figure of an ice-skating polar bear that you DON'T want to let fall as you knock out the surrounding blocks of ice one by one. Since there are no polar bears in Antarctica (they are in the Artic) we subbed a small stuffed penguin. We found another stuffed penguin who we let observe :)
It's a fun game and, if you can stand the noise of the little hammer tap-tap-tapping the ice, the kids will enjoy setting up different configurations and seeing how much of the ice they can chip away before it all goes crashing down!!
Fun times! Well maybe not for the penguin!
Another fun Antarctica themed idea would be to rent Happy Feet. It's a cute little movie about a young penguin who feels he just doesn't belong. He goes on a quest to find himself and ends up saving the whole penguin colony. It gets a little into the overfishing and illegal poaching that goes on in the Antarctic region and the leopard seals (and other penguin eating animals) are a bit frightening in some scenes, but, overall, it's a pretty good movie that would make a good platform for teaching about Antarctica and the animals that live there. Click here for a small clip from the movie.