W-W-Welcome, fellow Adventurers, Mr. Marc here!
Today on Adventure to Fitness, we traveled to the f-f-frozen Arctic Circle to stop an evil
plan by Monsieur Lazé to f-f-freeze all of Florida’s fruit crops. And we had a lot of fun
doing it! We dodged whale flukes, got bounced by seals, and were swooped on by an angry
mama snowy owl. We also hopped across some slippery ice, got chased by an overly
friendly polar bear, went ice climbing, and made our very own crevasse!
Thanks to Professor Maddison, we learned all about the Arctic Circle and the many
creatures that call it home. Nanook, that’s what the native people of the Arctic Circle call
the polar bear and killer whales or orcas can be found in the Arctic Circle. We also
learned that the Arctic Circle is full of icebergs. If you look to the sky in the Arctic you
might be lucky enough to see the Aurora Borealis. In addition to learning about the Arctic
Circle we learned about the importance of washing our hands to kill germs, about how
healthy and good for you Florida citrus is, and how to practice self-control.
While we need to exercise our muscles to keep our bodies fit, we know we need to
exercise our minds, too. That’s why our team at Adventure to Fitness created these
additional “mind adventures” for you to share with your students. There’s one mind
adventure for each grade level, each incorporating the Next Generation Sunshine State
Standards. We’ve also included vocabulary and literature recommendations to increase
your students’ brainpower even further.
Remember Adventure Guides: Be swift, be safe, and be adventurers!
Mr. Marc, out!
VOCABULARY
1. ARCTIC OCEAN (noun): The ice-capped north polar ocean.
2. AURORA BOREALIS (noun): A luminous atmospheric phenomenon appearing as
streamers or bands of light sometimes visible in the night sky in northern or
southern regions of the earth. It is thought to be caused by charged particles
from the sun entering the earth's magnetic field and stimulating molecules in the
atmosphere.
3. AXIS (noun): A straight line about which a body or geometric object rotates or
may be conceived to rotate.
4. BERING STRAIT (noun): A strait connecting the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean.
5. BLUBBER (noun): The thick layer of fat between the skin and the muscle layers of
whales and other marine mammals, from which an oil is obtained.
6. CARNIVORE (noun): Any of various predatory, flesh-eating mammals of the order
Carnivora, including the dogs, cats, bears, weasels, hyenas, and raccoons.
7. CONTINENT (noun): One of the principal land masses of the earth, usually
regarded as including Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America,
and South America.
8. CURRENT (noun): A continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by
the forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, Coriolis force,
temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of
the Moon and the Sun.
9. CREVASSE (noun): A deep fissure, as in a glacier; a chasm.
10. FROZEN (verb): Made into, covered with, or surrounded by ice.
11. HUNTER (noun): One who hunts game.
12. ICEBERG (noun): A massive floating body of ice broken away from a glacier. Only
about 10 percent of its mass is above the surface of the water.
13. IGLOO (noun): An Inuit or Eskimo dwelling, especially a dome-shaped winter
dwelling built of blocks of packed snow. A dome-shaped structure or building.
14. KAYAK (noun): An Inuit or Eskimo boat consisting of a light wooden frame covered
with watertight skins except for a single or double opening in the center, and
propelled by a double-bladed paddle.
15. MAMMAL (noun): Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class
Mammalia, including humans, characterized by a covering of hair on the skin and, in
the female, milk-producing mammary glands for nourishing the young.
16. MAGNETIC FIELD (noun): A condition found in the region around a magnet or an
electric current, characterized by the existence of a detectable magnetic force at
every point in the region and by the existence of magnetic poles.
17. NANOOK (noun): In Inuit mythology, Nanook or Nanuq (Inuktitut syllabics: ᓇᓄᖅ),
which is from the Inuit language for polar bear, was the master of bears, meaning
he decided if hunters had followed all applicable taboos and if they deserved
success in hunting bears.
18. ORCA (noun): A black and white predatory whale (Orcinus orca) that feeds on
large fish, squid, and sometimes dolphins and seals.
19. OVERHEAT (verb): To heat too much.
20. PARTICLE (noun): A very small piece or part; a tiny portion or speck.
21. PERMAFROST (noun): Permanently frozen subsoil, occurring throughout the Polar
Regions and locally in perennially frigid areas.
22. TALON (noun): The claw of a bird of prey.
23. TUNDRA (noun): A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic
regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation
such as lichens, mosses, and stunted shrubs.
24. WHALE FLUKE (noun): A whale's flukes are its tail fins, which are composed of
flesh and not anchored by skeletal anatomy.
SUGGESTED READINGS

Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Owings
Dewey

Antarctic Journal: The Hidden Worlds of Antarctica's Animals by Meredith
Hooper

Arctic and Antarctic (Eye Wonder) by DK Publishing

Aurora: A Tale of the Northern Lights by Mindy Dwyer

Germs Are Not for Sharing (Ages 4-7) (Best Behavior Series) by Elizabeth Verdick

Icebergs and Glaciers by Seymour Simon

Icebergs, Ice Caps, and Glaciers (Rookie Read-About Science) by Allan Fowler

My Arctic Circle of Friends by Pauline Wood Doupe

Northern Lights A to Z by Mindy Dwyer

Perishing Poles (Horrible Geography) by Anita Ganeri

Perry the Polar Bear Goes Green: A Story About Global Warming by Olive O'Brien

Scary Creatures of the Arctic by Penny Clarke
My Favorite ATF Character
Suggested Grade Level: Kindergarten
Next Generation Sunshine State Standard: LA.K.3.2.1 The student will draft writing
by drawing, telling, or writing about a familiar experience, topic or text.
Overview: Each week we go on adventures with Mr. Marc, Mr. Clock, and Professor
Maddison. Along the way we meet other unique characters. In this mind adventure,
students will choose their favorite character from Arctic Freeze and write 2-3
sentences explaining why that character is their favorite.
Content Area: Language Arts
Required Materials:
 Pencil
 Crayons
 Paper
Time Required: 20-25 minutes
Procedures:
1. Share your favorite character from the ATF Network with the students.
2. Explain what a character is and give examples of characters from today’s episode.
3. Tell students that they’ll be choosing their favorite character from today’s
episode to write about.
4. Instruct them to first draw a picture of their character in the Arctic Circle and
then write two to three sentences explaining why that’s their favorite character
from the episode.
5. Next, model for the students what this will look like by sketching a picture of your
favorite character followed by two to three sentences explaining why.
6. Ask a couple of students to explain what they are going to be doing today.
7. To get the class started you may want to have them first write on their paper: My
favorite character is _________________.
8. Ask volunteers to read their sentences to the class.
9. Display the illustrations and sentences somewhere in the class or hall for others to
see.
A Whale of a Tale
Suggested Grade Level: First Grade
Next Generation Sunshine State Standard: LA.1.4.1.2 The student will participate in
writing simple stories, poems, rhymes, or song lyrics.
Overview: While visiting the Arctic Circle, Mr. Marc and Mr. Clock came face-to-face
with a pod of bowhead whales. In this mind adventure, students will create a poem about
a bowhead whale.
Content Area: Language Arts
Required Materials:
 Pencil
 Crayons
 ATF Worksheet
 A book with rhyming phrases/words
Time Required: 30-40 minutes
Procedures:
1. Read a story that includes simple rhymes (e.g. Dr. Seuss).
2. Tell the students that they’re going to be writing their own rhymes by writing a
poem about the bowhead whale they met in today’s episode.
3. Review the definition of rhyming with the students and begin creating a list of
words that rhyme with whale.
4. Model an example by writing two lines about the bowhead whale. For example:
 This is a bowhead whale. He has a fluke for a tale.
5. Brainstorm other sentences that end with rhyming words for whale and write them
on the board.
6. Instruct students to choose four lines to use in their poem, starting with “This is a
bowhead whale” and write them on the lines provided in the whale belly.
7. If you find students are having a difficult time deciding on what to write, you may
want to come up with a class poem, write it on the board, and have them copy it on
their paper.
8. After students write their poems, have them decorate their whales.
9. Display the class poems or have students take them home to share.
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Greetings from the Arctic Circle
Suggested Grade Level: Second Grade
Next Generation Sunshine State Standard: LA.2.4.2.1 The student will write in a
variety of informational/expository forms (e.g., rules, summaries, procedures, recipes,
notes/messages, labels, instructions, graphs/tables).
Overview: In this mind adventure students will write a postcard to a friend telling them
about their trip to the Arctic Circle with Mr. Marc.
Subject Area: Language Arts
Required Materials:
 Pencil
 ATF Worksheet
 The Jolly Postman/Postcard Collection by Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg
Time Required: 30-35 minutes
Procedures:
1. Read the story, The Jolly Postman/Postcard Collection by Janet Ahlberg and Allan
Ahlberg.
2. Tell students that they’re going to write their own postcards telling about a trip to
the Arctic Circle.
3. Introduce students to the sections of a postcard. If possible bring in some actual
postcards for students to see.
4. Model writing a postcard to a friend.
5. Provide students with an unfinished postcard and instruct them on how to complete
the address portion of the postcard. Use the school address for a final
destination.
6. Next, instruct them to write a short message to a friend about their trip to the
Arctic Circle. Also, tell them to draw a picture of their trip.
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And Then What Happened?
Suggested Grade Level: Third Grade
Next Generation Sunshine State Standards: LA.3.1.7.3 The student will determine
explicit ideas and information in grade-level text, including but not limited to main idea,
relevant supporting details, strongly implied message and inference, and chronological
order of events.
Overview: Mr. Marc’s adventures are jam packed with activity. In this mind adventure
students will recall events from Arctic Freeze and put them in chronological order.
Subject Area: Language Arts
Required Materials:
 Pencil
 ATF Worksheets
Time Required: 15-20 minutes
Procedures:
1. Inform the students that today they will be practicing placing events in
chronological order.
2. Review chronological order with the students.
3. Model chronological order by sharing an easy example such as making a peanut
butter sandwich.
4. Provide each student with an ATF worksheet and have them complete it
individually.
5. Go over answers with the class.
Name: _____________________________________________________________
And Then What Happened?
Directions: Read the sentences. Sequence the events in order from 1 to 4.
______ That’s right! The Northern Lights, also called the aurora borealis. Good job
everyone!
______ Looking up at night, you can sometimes see a display of colorful lights in the
Arctic sky. Do you know what those lights are called? You have until the end of today’s
episode to figure it out. Good luck!
______ And now adventurers, I’m Cole with the answer to this week’s Question of the
Day. In the Arctic Circle at night, you can sometimes see a display of colorful lights up in
the sky. Do you know what those lights are called?
______ Sometimes at night, the skies light up in the Arctic Circle with incredible colors.
They’re called the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.
Read each sentence. Place an X by the sentence that happened first in the episode.
_____ Mr. Marc discovers Mr. Lazy’s Freeze Blaster.
_____ Mr. Marc sets out to stop Mr. Lazy from destroying all of Florida’s fruit.
_____ A new crevasse was created that swallowed up Mr. Lazy’s Freeze Blaster.
_____ Mr. Marc finds out that Mr. Lazy is trying to destroy all of Florida’s fruit crops.
And Then What Happened?
Directions: Read the sentences. Sequence the events in order from 1 to 4.
4
______ That’s right! The Northern Lights, also called the aurora borealis. Good job
everyone!
1
______ Looking up at night, you can sometimes see a display of colorful lights in the
Arctic sky. Do you know what those lights are called? You have until the end of today’s
episode to figure it out. Good luck!
3
______ And now adventurers, I’m Cole with the answer to this week’s Question of the
Day. In the Arctic Circle at night, you can sometimes see a display of colorful lights up in
the sky. Do you know what those lights are called?
2
______ Sometimes at night, the skies light up in the Arctic Circle with incredible colors.
They’re called the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.
Read each sentence. Place an X by the sentence that happened first in the episode.
_____ Mr. Marc discovers Mr. Lazy’s Freeze Blaster.
_____ Mr. Marc sets out to stop Mr. Lazy from destroying all of Florida’s fruit.
_____ A new crevasse was created that swallowed up Mr. Lazy’s Freeze Blaster.
X
_____ Mr. Marc finds out that Mr. Lazy is trying to destroy all of Florida’s fruit crops.
The Main Event
Suggested Grade Level: 4th Grade
Next Generation Sunshine State Standard: LA.4.1.7.3 The student will determine
explicit ideas and information in grade-level text, including but not limited to main idea,
relevant supporting details, implied message, inferences, chronological order of events,
summarizing, and paraphrasing.
Overview: In this mind adventure, students will identify the main idea after reading an
informative paragraph about a character from Arctic Freeze.
Content Area: Language Arts
Required Materials:
 Pencil
 ATF Worksheet
Time Required: 20-25 minutes
Procedures:
1. Inform students that today they’ll be determining the main idea of a few short
passages.
2. Remind students of the definition of main idea.
3. Provide each student with an ATF worksheet.
4. Assign students to complete the worksheet individually.
5. Go over answers with the class.
Name: _____________________________________________________________
The Main Event
Directions: Read the paragraphs. Underline the sentence that tells the main idea.
1. Bowhead whales also known as Arctic whales are mammals. Like all marine mammals
they come to the surface to breath air into their lungs, before going back down
into the water to swim and eat. Bowhead whales give birth to live newborn calves
and nurse their young with milk. Although it’s hard to see, bowhead whales do have
hair. At 136 tons, the bowhead whale is one of the Arctic’s largest mammal
residents.
2. The polar bear is a bear native to the Arctic Circle. They have a thick layer of
blubber under their fur to keep them warm. The polar bear spends most of their
time at sea and can hunt consistently only from sea ice. Most of its diet consists
of seals. That’s because a polar bear is a carnivore, meaning that they eat only
meat.
Write 3 sentences to support the following main idea:
Today on Adventure to Fitness, Mr. Marc traveled to the frozen Arctic Circle.
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Onomatopoeia
Suggested Grade Level: 5th Grade
Next Generation Sunshine State Standard: LA.5.4.1.2 The student will write a variety
of expressive forms (e.g., fiction, short story, autobiography, science fiction, haiku) that
employ figurative language (e.g., simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification,
hyperbole), rhythm, dialogue, characterization, plot, and/or appropriate format.
Overview: In this mind adventure, students will create a list of onomatopoeias that might
be heard in the Arctic Circle and then use them in sentences.
Content Area: Language Arts
Required Materials:
 If You Were Onomatopoeia (Word Fun) by Trisha Speed Shaskan
 Pencil
 Paper
Time Required: 30-35 minutes
Procedures:
1. Read the story, If You Were Onomatopoeia (Word Fun) by Trisha Speed Shaskan.
2. Tell students that today they are going to be creating a list of onomatopoeias
based on Arctic Freeze.
3. Start a list of onomatopoeias on the board.
4. Next, ask students for ideas and add those to the list on the board. You may want
to ask them why they chose the word.
5. After you have a pretty decent list of words instruct students to choose 5 words
to be used in 5 different sentences pertaining to today’s episode.
6. Next, have students exchange papers and make edits to the sentences.
7. Ask volunteers to share their favorite sentence.