Arctic & Antarctic 

Activity Book 

Did you know? 

The North Pole is in the Arctic and the South Pole is in the Antarctic. 

You might think that the Arctic and Antarctic are very similar--after 

all, they are both cold and covered with ice. Both experience about 6 

months of darkness a year. While they have many similarities, very 

different animals live in each region. 

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, iciest place on earth. The average 

temperature is -55 degrees F, and wind speeds averaging 57 mph! 

In comparison, the Arctic is a paradise – the average temperature is a 

“warm” 3 degrees F, with wind speeds averaging 16 mph. 

People live in the Arctic. The Inuit, Inupiat, Yupik, and others make 

their home at the top of the earth. 

The climate of Antarctica is too harsh for humans to have settled 

there permanently, as they did in the Arctic. Thousands of people 

visit every year, though. 

About 70 % of the worlds’ fresh water is contained in the ice and 

snow of the Antarctic. 

Antarctica is a continent, under all of that ice and snow is land. 

The Arctic is not a continent, under the snow and ice is just water, 

the Arctic Ocean. 

What both areas have in common is that the winter ice sheets are 

getting smaller. 

The word ‘arctic’ comes from the Greek Arktilos, or “country of the 

great bear,” because this is where polar bears live. 

1
Color Me! 

Polar bears are perfectly adapted to survive in the 

harsh conditions of the Arctic. Two layers of fur and a 

thick blubber layer provide the bears with such good 

insulation that they experience almost no heat loss. 

Polar bears are so well protected that they have more 

problems with overheating than they do with the 

cold. 

2
Connect the dots to find a whale that lives in the 

Arctic: 

Bowhead whales received their name from the high, 

arched upper jaw that somewhat resembles the shape 

of an archer's bow. Bowheads live at the southern 

edges of the Arctic ice during winters and move 

through leads of broken & melting ice during 

summers. Bowhead whales have been important 

subsistence (survival) items for native arctic hunters 

for centuries. The whole animal is used for food, tools, 

art works, and house construction materials. 

3
Color Us! 

The puffins’ most striking feature is their large, 

colorful bill. Early sailors called them ‘sea parrots’ 

because of their stout bodies, short wings, and orange 

or red webbed feet. Often puffins must run along the 

top of the water a long way before they can manage to 

get airborne. 

4
5

Word Search 

Who lives on and around the Arctic? 

Z P T A R M I G A N U N W C O 

S O U C B F J N P C Z D H I P 

A L W F X H K B L A C K F L Y 

R A J S F D Y Q R R C U K A B 

C R A E T I N U P I A T I R O 

T B S A U K N L C B H M N C W

I E W A L R U S S O H G G T H 

C A D F K L Y C U U D X C I E 

T R T E R A C U V B U O R C A 

E E M F G J K L I R O P A F D 

R D L U H A R P S E A L B O W

N S L L E I C I M U S K O X H 

W E F G H Y O N P A S E T R A 

B R I T T L E S T A R E O A L 

L M E T L E M M I N G S S R E 

Can you find these words? 

Polar bear 

Puffins 

Beluga 

Bowhead whale 

Caribou 

Inupiat 

Arctic fox 

Harp seal 

Lemmings 

Orca 

King crab 

Walrus 

Arctic tern 

Ptarmigan 

Musk Ox 

Sculpin 

Cod 

Brittle star 

Black fly 
Color Me! 

Blue whales are the largest animals ever to live in our 

planet's history -- even larger than any dinosaur! They 

can be over 100 feet long and weigh over 200 tons. 

Blue whales can be found in all oceans. In Antarctica, 

they feed on krill during the winter, right up to the 

ice edge. Blue whales are now endangered. In the 

Southern Hemisphere, whaling operations killed over 

360,000 whales in the 20th century. The once huge 

populations of blue whales in Antarctic waters is now 

gone, leaving perhaps a few hundred animals 

scattered around Antarctica. 

6
Seals are mammals, and they have to breathe air to 

live. Can you help this seal find her breathing hole in 

the ice sheet? 

7
Color Me! 

Male walruses have impressive mustaches with as 

many as 700 hairs packed on their noses. They also 

have two massive tusks, which are used to grip the ice 

when climbing out of the water, and to anchor 

themselves on the ocean bottom while digging for 

clams. 

8
Arctic Mad Lib 

Fill in the mad lib list, then copy your mad libs into 

the blanks in the story below. Once you have filled in 

all your blanks, read your completed story for a 

laugh. 

Mad Lib List: 

1. Family member _______________________________________ 

2. Somebody’s name _____________________________________ 

3. Animal _______________________________________________ 

4. Color _________________________________________________ 

5. Animal _______________________________________________ 

6. Things ________________________________________________ 

7. Animal ________________________________________________ 

I was taking a walk in Greenland one summer day with 

my ___________________ and our friend ____________________, who 

is a __________________________ very early in morning. A large 

_____________ ______________ started to chase us. I think she 

wanted to eat us for breakfast! We ran quickly to get away from 

her and hid in some frozen _____________________ that were along the 

shore. We sure were lucky they were there so we could get 

away. We found some ___________________ while we were 

there that we ate for lunch.

9
Color Us! 

Male Narwhals have a long ‘horn’ growing out of their 

upper jaw, which is really a long, spiral tooth! The 

female Narwhals do not have a ‘horn’. Can you guess 

for what use the males might have for this ‘horn’? 

10
Color Us!

Many bony fishes in both polar seas manufacture 

antifreeze-like chemicals in their body fluids so they 

don’t freeze. 

11

Antarctic 

dragonfish 

DeVrie’s Paraliparis 

Striped Rockcod 
12

Word Search #2 

Who lives on and around Antarctica? 

E K H U M P B A C K W H A L E 

U M I N K E W H A L E K Z I N 

S D T O A L W C D G F I K I C 

W J P R O S S S E A L N U E R 

A F P J H N M U L E I G L L A 

W V H A R U H L I K N P E E B 

B L U E W H A L E E A E O P E 

A K F G B H Y D P K L N P H A 

S N O W P E T R E L B G A A T 

Q K Y O M X O C N S T U R N E 

U D R S T R H K G P R I D T R 

W P H I E E H C U A O N S S S 

D F A P L G J Y I M S N E E E 

R G M X A L E R N J S L A A A 

W E D D E L L S E A L A L L L 

Can you find these words? 

Emperor Penguin 

Krill 

Humpback Whale 

Leopard Seal 

Skua 

Snow Petrel 

Crabeater seal 

Minke whale 

Ross seal 

Weddell seal 

Adelie penguin 

Albatross 

King penguin 

Elephant seal 

Blue whale 
Color Us!

Emperor penguins spend their entire lives on or near 

the sea ice. Enduring temperatures down to -76 

degrees F, the female lays one egg in the dead of 

winter, which is carried on top of the male’ feet while 

the female goes back to sea to get some food. 

13
14

Connect the dots to see the Hooker’s Sea Lion. 

Sea lions have external ears, 

and walk on land by turning their 

rear flippers underneath them. 
Color Me!

Leopard seals are solitary predators and eat just about 

everything, from krill to other seals, but particularly 

appreciate Adélie penguins. They often attack 

penguins that are walking on broken floating ice by 

bursting through from underneath – wouldn’t that 

make the penguins nervous?! 

15
Can you help this humpback whale find his dinner? 

Humpback whales feed on krill (small shrimp-like 

crustaceans) and various kinds of small fish. Each 

whale can eat up to 1 1⁄2 tons of food a day! 

16
Color Me!

An Albatross may stay at sea for years until it comes 

ashore to breed. 

17
Everything brought to Antarctica must be removed 

when the people leave, to keep the station clean for 

the next group. Can you help the scientists find the 

following: fork, comb, thermometer, fishing pole, 

bottle, boot, wrench, and hammer? 

18
Color Us!

19

Adélie penguins are the most 

common penguin in Antarctica. 

They nest near the shore in 

groups, called rookeries, of six 

to hundreds. 
Match the krill! 

Which two are the same? 

20
Color Me!

An iceberg is a floating mass of freshwater ice that has 

broken from a glacier or polar ice sheet (a process 

called ‘calving’). Icebergs vary in size from the size of 

a large piano, called growlers, to the size of a ten story 

building. Only 1/8th of an iceberg is visible above the 

water line. 

21
Arctic...or Antarctic? 

Which is found where? Label the items below with A 

for Arctic, N for Antarctic, and B if it can be found in 

both places. 

1__ 

2__ 

 3__ 

4__ 

 5__ 

6__ 

22
Answers 

23
More Answers 

24
Even More Answers 

Match the Krill! 

Krill 3 and 6 are the same. 

Arctic...or Antarctic? 

1-N 

2-A 

3-A 

4-B 

5-B 

6-B 

25
In honor of the International Polar Year of 2007-2008 

Produced by: 

Dr. Susan Baker, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science 

Timothy Dorch, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science 

http://www.noaa.gov 

2006