Polar Bear Plunge!

photo by Joe Gawinski

My kids tease me because it will take me “ages” to get on sunscreen, the beach bag packed, etc. and then I just sit beside the pool and seldom get in.  My issue is the chilly water.  Thankfully, we live in NC, so by July the pools have warmed up enough (provided we don’t get a couple big thunderstorms—otherwise I’m waiting a few more days) for me to venture in.  Tepid?  No way.  Lukewarm?  Uh-uh.  I like just a couple degrees below bathwater.

So, it’s nearly unfathomable to me that people get into these New Year Polar Bear Plunges!  Surely, they’ve lost their minds!  A hot tub in the snow would be plenty “plunge” for me!

However, to keep in the spirit, I’ve got a new game for my therapy room—Polar Bear Plunge.  One is for the little people to target prepositions and pronouns.  The other is for those older artic kids.  Let’s dive in!

Polar Bear Plunge for Prepositions and Pronouns

Materials:

ActivityTailor.com

Empty tissue box (I use a Kleenex Cool Touch box because its metallic blue looks icy to me, but you can cover any tissue box appropriately.  Igloo themed, perhaps?); cut a 1” slit in each top corner so it can hold a card

Polar bear cards (white if preposition only, copy onto light blue and pink paper if addressing pronouns)

Polar bear direction cards (and pronoun cards if needed)

To play (prepositions only):

Beginner: Place 1-2 polar bears in the water, and 1-2 on the ice. Deal remaining polar bear cards (white). Be sure the “iceberg” is oriented the same way for all players. Preposition cards are shuffled and placed face down in the center of the table. On your turn, select a preposition card and place the polar bear according to the directions.

Competitive: Deal all polar bear cards (white). Preposition cards, plus the four “too cold” cards, are shuffled and placed in the center of the table. On your turn, select a preposition card and place the polar bear according to the directions. “Out of the water,” “Off the ice,” may put a bear back in your hand! If you draw, “Too cold” take any polar bear back from the ice into your hand. The object is to get rid of all your cards.

All the preposition cards have picture and written prompts.

To play (pronouns and prepositions):

Beginner: Place 1-2 polar bears in the water, and 1-2 on the ice. Deal remaining polar bear cards (pink and blue). Be sure the “iceberg” is oriented the same way for all players. Preposition cards are shuffled and placed face down in the center of the table. One set of pronoun cards is shuffled and placed separately on the table. On your turn, select a pronoun card, then a preposition card and place the polar bear (s) according to the directions.

Competitive: Deal all polar bear cards (pink and blue). Preposition cards, plus the four “too cold” cards, are shuffled and placed in the center of the table. On your turn, select a pronoun card and then a preposition card and place the polar bear according to the directions. “Out of the water,” “Off the ice,” may put a bear back in your hand! If you draw, “Too cold” take any polar bear back from the ice into your hand. The object is to get rid of all your cards.

There are two possible pronoun decks.  One is plain white.  The other is color coded for additional prompting (she/pink, he/blue, they/yellow).

***Bonus:  I have also included the spring themed version of the game—Lily pad Leap.  And your “iceberg” simply stands in as a pond.

The download is available in my TpT store.  Please click here for more information.

Polar Bear Plunge for Articulation

This download includes targets for all positions of the following sounds:

R:  24 prevolalic, all vocalic R targets are represented (over 50 for each medial and final)

S/Z: 20 targets for each position

L, TH/th, SH, J, K/G:  15 targets for each position

Targets are player specific so you can play with groups of kiddos each with a different target phoneme(s).  Even the therapist can have a different deck if you need to work on auditory discrimination or sound stimulation.  Cards can be printed in color or black & white.  In keeping with current therapy recommendations, I have focused on voiced phonemes.  If there is a specific sound you need to target and it isn’t included, please contact me!  I’m happy to add it on.

 

Materials:

Tissue box “iceberg” (optional)

Polar Bear Plunge card decks

To play:

  1.  Each player starts with 5 polar bear target cards in their hand and 10 additional target cards face down in front of them.
  2.  Direction cards are placed face down in the center of play.
  3. On your turn draw a direction card and follow the instructions. “Draw” means you will take another polar bear card from your target pile into your hand (say the word please!).  “Plunge” means you may discard a bear from your hand into a central discard pile (say the word please!) or into the “iceberg.”
  4. “Sip hot chocolate” and “Sit by the fire” cards ask you to say all the words in your hand.  Cards are neither drawn nor plunged.
  5. The first to get rid of all their cards is the winner!

The download is available in my TpT store.  Please click here for more information.

OK, let’s hear it, who’s done a true Polar Bear Plunge and was it….invigorating or just crazy?

 

 

 

 

 

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Katie

    In Florida, there are fresh water springs that stay a cool 68 degree year round. It may not sound cold, but trust me, it was my version of the Polar bear Plunge!! Brrrr…. Happy New Year!

    1. admin

      Happy New Year to you! A 68 degree dip counts as a plunge to me! Kim

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The views expressed in this blog are my own and are intended to inspire other speech-language pathologists in their own practice. If you are a parent, teacher or other educator, these ideas are not intended to take the place of treatment by a certified clinician. Read full disclaimer here.