Bring your students on an icy exploration of the polar ecosystem! The Arctic and Antarctica may look frozen and empty at first glance, but they’re full of life perfectly adapted to the cold.
✨ Perfect for grades 3–8, here’s what you need to bring ecosystems to life:
- Iconic BBC Videos: Share the clips on this page to introduce the location, plants, animals, and climate of the polar regions. (Don't miss the narwhals and emperor penguins!) Brought to you by world-class BBC programs like Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, and Seven Worlds, One Planet.
- Free Printable: Use the Polar Brochure Template to help students pull it all together in an ecosystem report with facts they’ve learned (and a little extra research).
It’s everything you need to make ecosystems easy to teach and truly memorable for your students.
In Weddell Seal Pups in Antarctica, narrator Sir David Attenborough reveals the challenges newborn seal pups face in one of the harshest environments on Earth. From enduring subzero temperatures and blizzards to entering the icy water for the first time, every decision impacts their survival. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Seven Worlds, One Planet, a series featuring remarkable animal behavior from all seven continents.
In A Weddell Seal Family's Journey, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes how a mother seal and her pup brave the freezing cold near the South Pole. These seals are the only animals that can survive here, staying warm thanks to a thick layer of fat beneath their skin and their special fur. The mother feeds her pup and carefully maintains their diving hole in the water to prevent it from freezing over, ensuring they can get air. And, at just one week old, the pup takes its first swim beneath the ice! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Life, a show that explores the remarkable strategies animals and plants use to ensure their survival.
In Winter Underwater With Weddell Seals, narrator Sir David Attenborough explains how Weddell seals spend the winter underwater where the 28°F (-2°C) water is warm compared with the frigid temperatures above. Watch the Weddell seal glide through a watery world that has not changed for millions of years. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Frozen Planet, a series that shows a fragile world of beauty and hostility, where nature finds a way to survive and thrive in frigid conditions.
In Traversing Extreme Winters in Antarctica, narrator Sir David Attenborough explains how two animals, the Weddell seal and the emperor penguin, live in the extreme environment of Antarctica. Watch the aurora borealis in the northern and southern hemispheres. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history of the world’s oceans and the rarely seen marine life that reside there.
Brave the chill and meet the coolest creatures on Earth! This playlist of 11 frosty video clips from BBC landmark shows like Frozen Planet and Planet Earth explores how animals survive some of the coldest places on the planet. Students will learn about adaptations, seasonal behaviors, and the survival strategies that help bison, foxes, seals, grizzlies, snow monkeys, polar bears, lynx, and more thrive in freezing climates.
They’ll discover how winter weather shapes each animal’s daily life; how they find food, conserve energy, protect themselves from predators; and why these icy habitats play a vital role in Earth’s systems.
The polar regions are the harshest places on Earth, and somehow life thrives there anyway — polar bears in the Arctic, penguins across Antarctica's ice. It's a good ecosystem for showing students that "extreme" doesn't mean "empty."
After watching polar videos, have students dig deeper with their own research and build a brochure covering:
- Location of the ecosystem on a world map
- Adjectives that describe the ecosystem
- Three animals that live there
- Three plants that grow there
- The climate
- Why the ecosystem matters
- Their favorite fun facts
Students summarize in their own words, which means they're practicing a real skill: pulling information from multiple sources and deciding what's worth keeping.
Bring your students on an icy exploration of the polar ecosystem! The Arctic and Antarctica may look frozen and empty at first glance, but they’re full of life perfectly adapted to the cold.
✨ Perfect for grades 3–8, here’s what you need to bring ecosystems to life:
- Iconic BBC Videos: Share the clips on this page to introduce the location, plants, animals, and climate of the polar regions. (Don't miss the narwhals and emperor penguins!) Brought to you by world-class BBC programs like Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, and Seven Worlds, One Planet.
- Free Printable: Use the Polar Brochure Template to help students pull it all together in an ecosystem report with facts they’ve learned (and a little extra research).
It’s everything you need to make ecosystems easy to teach and truly memorable for your students.
In Weddell Seal Pups in Antarctica, narrator Sir David Attenborough reveals the challenges newborn seal pups face in one of the harshest environments on Earth. From enduring subzero temperatures and blizzards to entering the icy water for the first time, every decision impacts their survival. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Seven Worlds, One Planet, a series featuring remarkable animal behavior from all seven continents.
In A Weddell Seal Family's Journey, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes how a mother seal and her pup brave the freezing cold near the South Pole. These seals are the only animals that can survive here, staying warm thanks to a thick layer of fat beneath their skin and their special fur. The mother feeds her pup and carefully maintains their diving hole in the water to prevent it from freezing over, ensuring they can get air. And, at just one week old, the pup takes its first swim beneath the ice! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Life, a show that explores the remarkable strategies animals and plants use to ensure their survival.
In Winter Underwater With Weddell Seals, narrator Sir David Attenborough explains how Weddell seals spend the winter underwater where the 28°F (-2°C) water is warm compared with the frigid temperatures above. Watch the Weddell seal glide through a watery world that has not changed for millions of years. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Frozen Planet, a series that shows a fragile world of beauty and hostility, where nature finds a way to survive and thrive in frigid conditions.
In Traversing Extreme Winters in Antarctica, narrator Sir David Attenborough explains how two animals, the Weddell seal and the emperor penguin, live in the extreme environment of Antarctica. Watch the aurora borealis in the northern and southern hemispheres. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history of the world’s oceans and the rarely seen marine life that reside there.
Brave the chill and meet the coolest creatures on Earth! This playlist of 11 frosty video clips from BBC landmark shows like Frozen Planet and Planet Earth explores how animals survive some of the coldest places on the planet. Students will learn about adaptations, seasonal behaviors, and the survival strategies that help bison, foxes, seals, grizzlies, snow monkeys, polar bears, lynx, and more thrive in freezing climates.
They’ll discover how winter weather shapes each animal’s daily life; how they find food, conserve energy, protect themselves from predators; and why these icy habitats play a vital role in Earth’s systems.
The polar regions are the harshest places on Earth, and somehow life thrives there anyway — polar bears in the Arctic, penguins across Antarctica's ice. It's a good ecosystem for showing students that "extreme" doesn't mean "empty."
After watching polar videos, have students dig deeper with their own research and build a brochure covering:
- Location of the ecosystem on a world map
- Adjectives that describe the ecosystem
- Three animals that live there
- Three plants that grow there
- The climate
- Why the ecosystem matters
- Their favorite fun facts
Students summarize in their own words, which means they're practicing a real skill: pulling information from multiple sources and deciding what's worth keeping.