Frosty the Canadian Polar Bear
Photo Credit: David Gray
Photo Credit: David Gray
Frosty
Meet Frosty! Frosty is a Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) ambassador who my students proudly raised money to ‘adopt’ by organizing an environmental garage sale. By supporting this CWF program, my students helped to fund conservation and education efforts that help the government and the public to understand how climate change will affect Canadian wildlife habitats –but they didn’t stop there! As we learned more and more about the challenges that polar bears face in a warming environment, Frosty won the hearts of my students. They began taking turns bringing him home where he could teach other family members important lessons about the planet.
Ice Bear Baby
Frosty went on to star in a catchy music video titled Ice Bear Baby, set to the tune of the Vanilla Ice song, Ice Ice Baby. My students wrote Ice Bear Baby, focusing on how we need to be changemakers to help climate change is hurting polar bears in Canada’s Arctic. I think it is crucial for students to have the opportunity to explore complex and sometimes emotional topics through multiple entry points to learning, especially through the arts.
The grade two students wrote, designed, and produced this video to submit for the Canadian Geographic Energy Diet Challenge. This was an amazing opportunity for students to compete and complete 25 environmental missions that helped them take action. They became stewards of the planet!
Canada C3
Frosty’s biggest break came when he boarded the Canada C3 arctic icebreaker ship “Polar Prince” in Toronto on June 1st, 2017. Frosty stayed aboard the whole 150 day expedition and is probably the only polar bear (real or plush) to ever traverse the entire coastline of Canada from Coast to Coast to Coast. My students were delighted to follow Frosty’s journey around the country. Each leg of the journey brought them to a new and fascinating place. It is incredible to see how deep my students’ understanding of Canada’s diversity of landscape and people has become thanks to Frosty’s epic adventure.
This map was created by Canada C3 link to learn more
Frosty's Story For Children
Frosty began his 150 day journey boarding the Canada C3 ship in Toronto. He first traveled along Lake Ontario. Here he started to help learn more about Canada and how he could make a difference. One memorable day he enjoyed listening to stories from an indigenous elder who spoke about gratitude and shared a story about how we should only take what we need from Mother Earth.
He felt so proud that he could reduce the amount of plastic going into the water. Suddenly Frosty was in shock. He realized water connects our nation and our world! What an important message he needs to begin to share. Frosty continued giving back to communities and meeting incredible people across Canada. He also felt blessed to travel to three oceans the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific ocean.
Now he is on a mission to help everyone understand why we need to protect our water. What will you do to help?
This made Frosty think about how he needs to care for the planet more. So at that moment he started…he helped plant trees! He then travelled down the Saint Lawrence River where later in the week he helped clean up for World Ocean Day.
Atlantic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
Pacific Ocean
Lake Ontario
Photos of Frosty were taken by many Canada C3 family members.