Animals in the Winter

This year, our winter study mainly focused on what animals do when it gets so cold.

Migration, Hibernation, and Adaption

We talked about how different animals respond to the cold weather. Some migrate to warmer places, some sleep, and some find ways to adapt and survive.

We read several nonfiction books about real animals that inspired some of our explorations.

This student was interested in the homes that beavers stay in during the winter months, and built one of his own using loose parts.

We also read many fiction stories about animals in the winter, including some that are silly and imaginative. But even books that are just pretend help us to think about what it might be really like to live outside in the winter time. 

The traditional story of the Mitten was one of our favorites. It inspired some retelling activities, and a favorite alphabet game during music time. 

We would hide the mitten under a letter, sing a little song, and then make guesses about where it might be. The kids loved finding and hiding it over and over again. 

We also thought about the different kinds of tracks animals leave in the snow

Hibernation is always a favorite topic during this unit, and the kids loved dramatic play in the "Bear Cave."

We used our spinning art from earlier in month as a background for this simple snowy bear craft.

Math Game: How many bears in the cave?

I love using this math game when talking about hibernating bears because it's so great for building number sense and 1:1 correspondence. We count out a certain number of bears, hide some, and try to figure out how many are hiding.