It is snowing & cold here today which is making us want to stay in and hibernate so I thought I would post some favorite hibernation classroom activities, games, books, songs, and crafts.
Pajama Day
A great way to culminate your unit on hibernation is to have a Pajama Day! Children (and teachers) wear their pajamas to school and bring their favorite teddy bear. Suggested activities for the day are below:
Bear Caves
Create “bear caves” in the room by draping large blankets over tables and chairs. Students can place their teddy bears in the caves to pretend they are hibernating.
Hibernation Craft
In advance, for each student fold a paper plate in half and staple together along the edges. Cut an opening in one side to resemble the opening of a cave. Copy the sleeping bear pattern below.
Have the students color or paint their bear cave black. Give each child a copy of the sleeping bear and have them color and cut it out. Students glue their sleeping bears inside the cave. Cotton can be glued on the top to resemble snow. See picture below:
Bear Cave craft
Sleeping bear pattern
I recently updated the bear patterns for this craft and added a writing prompt page for my kinders. I displayed the crafts with the writing prompts in the hallway – it turned out so cute! This updated version (new bear patterns, writing prompts, & bulletin board letters can be find in my Hibernation Activities resource).
I let my students choose whether they wanted a blanket for their hibernating bears and which writing prompt they wanted to complete.
Hibernation Games
Hibernation Game
Played similar to musical chairs but carpet squares are used instead of chairs. Explain to the children that while the music is playing the animals(them) are awake and looking for food. When the music stops it is winter and time to find a spot to sleep (carpet square). As the days go on and the children know more animals you can ask them what animal they are when they sleep.
Who Woke the Sleeping Bear?
Have all the children sit in a circle. One child will sit in the middle and pretend to sleep all curled up like a bear hibernating. Make sure their eyes stay closed!
Pick a child and have them sneak up and touch the bear then quickly return to their spot in the circle. Then everyone in the circle says WAKE UP SLEEPY BEAR! WAKE UP! and the child will then sit up and have to guess who woke them up. Let them guess 3 times. You can vary the game by letting them ask 3 questions such as Was it a boy? Do they have on a red shirt?
Which Animals Hibernate?
This hibernation game is interactive and engaging and is included at the end of this Winter Season PowerPoint that has real, full-color photographs so children can relate what they are learning to the real world.
Students get to click on (choose) the correct pictures of animals that hibernate. When a picture is clicked either a smiley face correct symbol or an unhappy face “try again” symbol is shown giving students immediate feedback. After being clicked, correct pictures are then marked with a gold star to distinguish them from incorrect ones.
Hibernating Animals Sorting Activities
Sorting activities are a great way to enhance students’ learning of hibernation. Sorting the animals into sets helps teach young children about relationships and attributes, helps them to compare and better recognize differences, and shows them that things can be categorized. The sorting activities will also help to train their brains to create organized thoughts and ways of retrieving the hibernation information.
When we are first learning about hibernation, I like to use the pocket chart to sort animal pictures into Animals that Hibernate and Animals that do NOT Hibernate categories. This helps students to visually see the animals separated into 2 groups and helps them learn and recall which animals hibernate during the winter. You can use animal pictures from online, from magazines, from games, etc. These animal cards and headings are from Hibernation Activities.
When doing sorting activities with young students it is important to practice both sorting objects into groups AND looking at groups of objects that have already been sorted and figuring out how they are sorted. Therefore, I like to group the animals without the headings and ask students to tell me how they are grouped.
Animal pictures can also be used in centers or small groups. I use sorting mats like these and also check students’ individual understanding by having them find and color the hibernating animals in a picture.
Favorite Hibernation Books
Bear Snores On (The Bear Books)
A host of animals find their way into bear’s cave to escape the cold winter as he sleeps.
Simple text and photographs introduce hibernation and how some animals prepare for and experience hibernation each year.
Old Man Winter is trying to tell Big Bear “Sleep, Big Bear, sleep” because it is time for him to hibernate but Big Bear doesn’t hear too well. He thinks Old Man Winter has told him to drive a jeep, to sweep, and to leap.
Students learn about all the different animals that hibernate and how they prepare for hibernation.
Introduces students to different types of hibernating animals with rhyming text.
Tells how animals cope with winter’s harsh weather (includes hibernation and migration).
Explains why some kinds of animals hibernate when the weather gets cold, and shows where different animals hibernate and how they prepare for winter.
It’s time for a long winter nap. But just like your students might do every night, these animals keep busy trying to stay up just a little bit longer.
Follow a bear cub and its family as they prepare to hibernate for the winter. Also includes learning activities.
Animal Hibernation (Learn about Animal Behavior)
Explains the amazing ways hibernating animals spend the winter.
Story of a little dormouse and his frantic search for a safe place to hibernate.
This book shows how 13 North American animal species survive the winter. They do not all hibernate but I love the illustrations and the additional activities included.
Hibernation Songs
Bear is Sleeping (sung to Frere Jacques)
Bear is sleeping, bear is sleeping,
Let it snow! Let it snow!
Sleeping all the winter, sleeping all the winter,
Snug and warm. Snug and warm.
Bear is sleeping, bear is sleeping,
In a cave, in a cave.
I wonder when he’ll come out,
I wonder when he’ll come out,
In the spring, in the spring.
We’re Going On a Bear Hunt version 1
(Leader)
We’re going on a bear hunt!
(Group)
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
I’m not afraid!
I’m not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Here comes the gate
” ” (Group Echos)
Now we’re on a bear hunt ” “
We’re gonna catch a big one ” “
I’m not afraid ” “
Are you? ” ” Not me! ” “
We’re coming to a tall mountain ” “
It sure is high ” “
It sure is wide ” “
Let’s climb up it ” “
Well, there’s nothing over there ” “
Nothing over there ” “
Nothing back there ” “
Hey! Wait! I think I see something
Quick! Everybody run down!
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
I’m not afraid!
I’m not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
We’re going thru the tall grass ” “
We’re going thru the short grass ” “
Hey! Look! There’s a little tree ” “
Well, let’s shinny on up it
Whoa! It gets a little skinny up here at the top
See anything over that way? ” “
Anything over that way?, Uh, oh!,
Oh, no! Whoa! Agh! let’s get down!
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
I’m not afraid!
I’m not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Oh, no! ” “
It’s a big puddle of mud ” “
Can’t go around it ” “
Gotta go right thru it ” “
Yeuk! ” “
Well, let’s go.
Squish, Sqwish, Blaaahh.
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
I’m not afraid!
I’m not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
We’re coming to a wide river ” “
And there’s no bridge going over it ” “
No tunnel going under it ” “
It’s just plain old water ” “
And we’re gonna have to swim ” “
All right, dive in!
Start swimming
Do the back stroke
Do the side stroke
Do the doggie paddle
Try the little cat paddle
OK Jump out, shake yourself off
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
I’m not afraid!
I’m not afraid!
Are you?
Are you?
Not me!
Not me!
Shhh, it’s a cave ” “
Looks like the kind of cave that B-bears live in ” “
I don’t know if I want to go in there
You think we oughta go in?
Are you nuts?
There’s probably a bear in there
All right I’ll go in, You stay here,
And if I find a bear, I’ll come out and get you
And we’ll all go in and grab him together
Now, quiet, don’t make a sound while I’m in that cave,
Cuz if you wake him up, I’ll be in trouble
Bears are awful ornery when they first wake up, you know
OK, I’m going on in
Oooo, It’s dark in here
It’s really dark in here
I can’t see a thing
Agh, there’s spiders webs
Ooo, what was that???
What’s this??…. it’s soft, uh oh,it’s kind of fuzzy
Ahg!!!!!!!!! Run! Everybody run!!
I saw a bear!!!!
Jump in the water! Swim fast!!
Do the backstroke!
The sidestroke, the doggie paddle
Jump out of the water
Run through the mud!
Forget the tree!!
Go through the tall grass
The short grass
Quick! Go up the mountain
Down the other side
Go thru the gate
Into the house, under the bed
Under the pillow
Hide!!!!!
Uh, it’s awful quiet around here
I’m not afraid
I’m not afraid
Are you?
Are you
We’re Going On a Bear Hunt version 2 based on the book by Michael Rosen
Actions for the words can be seen in this video
We’re going on a bear hunt.
We’re going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We’re not scared.
Uh-uh!
Grass!
Long wavy grass.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
Oh no!
We’ve got to go through it!
Swishy swashy! Swishy swashy! Swishy swashy!
We’re going on a bear hunt.
We’re going catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We’re not scared.
Uh-uh!
A river!
A deep cold river.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
Oh no!
We’ve got to go through it!
Splash splosh! Splash splosh! Splash splosh!
We’re going on a bear hunt.
We’re going catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We’re not scared.
Uh-uh!
Mud!
Thick oozy mud.
We can’t go over it,
We can’t go under it.
Oh no!
We’ve got to go through it!
Squelch squerch! Squelch squerch! Squelch squerch!
We’re going on a bear hunt.
We’re going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We’re not scared.
Uh-uh!
A forest!
A big dark forest.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
Oh no!
We’ve got to go through it!
Stumble trip! Stumble trip! Stumble trip!
We’re going on a bear hunt.
We’re going to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We’re not scared.
Uh-uh!
A snowstorm!
A swirling whirling snowstorm.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
Oh no!
We’ve got to go through it!
Hooo wooo! Hooo wooo! Hooo wooo!
We’re going on a bear hunt.
We’re go to catch a big one.
What a beautiful day!
We’re not scared.
Uh-uh!
A cave!
A narrow gloomy cave.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
We’ve got to go through it!
Tiptoe! Tiptoe! Tiptoe!
WHAT’S THAT!
One shiny wet nose!
Two big furry ears!
Two big goggly eyes!
IT’S A BEAR!
Quick!
Back through the cave!
Tiptoe! Tiptoe! Tiptoe!
Back through the snowstorm!
Hoooo woooo! Hoooo woooo! Hoooo woooo!
Back through the forest!
Stumble trip! Stumble trip! Stumble trip!
Back through the mud!
Squelch squerch! Squelch squerch! Squelch squerch!
Back through the river!
Splash splosh! Splash splosh! Splash splosh!
Back through the grass!
Swishy swashy! Swishy swashy! Swishy swashy!
Get to our front door.
Open the door.
Up the stairs
Oh no!
We forgot to shut the door.
Back down stairs.
Back upstairs.
Into the bedroom
In to the bed
Under the covers
I’m not going on a bear hunt again.
Resources used in this post (click the covers for details):
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