The Blubber Experiment

Lesson: Understanding the World

Class: Reception Year: 2025 - 2026

Reception have been learning about a range of animals and their habitats. Within this we have been exploring how animals adapt, camoflauge and find food in their habitats and how the climate can affect this. 

During the Blubber experiment, children learnt how Arctic animals survive in the cold, icy weather! Polar bears and many other animals have a layer of blubber to keep them warm. We used lard, plastic gloves and lots of ice to test out if we could feel the difference compared to our bare skin. We even used a timer to see how much longer we could keep our hand in the icy water- it was clear to see we could keep our hand in the ice much longer once we had our layer of 'blubber'.