Hibernation Unit:
Last week, out class did a unit on hibernation. I wanted to use the week as an opportunity to learn about hibernation, while also working on our reading, phonics, sorting, counting, and patterning skills, which we discovered we needed some work on :).
Songs:
To tune of "Are you Sleeping?"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 also added new animals that we learned hibernate, and students guessed where they would hibernate. Ex: Skunk is hibernating, in a log).
Movement song:
Students LOVE this song. It was especially fun on Friday, during our hibernation party, when students had their teddy bears with them!
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground
Teddy bear, teddy bear, dance on your toes
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your nose
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your head
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go to bed
Teddy bear, teddy bear say "Good Night"
Teddy, bear, teddy bear turn out the light
Teddy bear, teddy bear, wake up now!
Teddy bear, teddy bear, take a bow.
Monday (Reading/Writing Activities):
I conduct reading day activities in small, leveled learning groups, which rotate through four stations.
1) "What would I take with me if I were to hibernate?" After learning a little about hibernation during morning circle time, students were asked this question. They spent some time thinking and talking about it, and then drew a picture of the things they would bring with them. Most students ended up drawing a picture of a "bear cave," and drawing the things inside. I asked upper level learning groups to write the words next to the objects that they brought.
2) The Mitten Book. Students in this small group read the Mitten, by Jan Brett, with the teacher's assistant. They then made their own Mitten books, making several pages and drawing a picture on each page, of something that happened in the book. This activity is a great reading comprehension activity.
3) In the dramatic play area, student played inside the "bear cave," which I created using cardboard boxes and brown paper. They brought play food inside the cave, and loved spending time "hibernating" inside.
4) At the independent work table, students worked on spelling the word bear. Upper level students did so independently, while others used letter outlines, or were given the word on the board.
Tuesday (Art):
Students drew pictures of bears onto plain white paper, using black markers. When finished, students painted their bears brown, and finished off the bear with a sprinkling of coffee grounds to make fur. Students really loved this activity, and loved using LOTS of coffee. The bears are now hanging on our art wall inside a giant paper cave.
Wednesday (Math Activities):
Math activities are conducted in small, leveled learning groups, who rotate through four stations.
1) At the main teacher table, students worked on sorting animals, based on whether they hibernate or do not hibernate. I started by making a single page, filled with clip-art pictures of animals. Students were given the page, along with a blank sheet of white paper, glue, and crayons. Students were responsible for drawing a hibernation cave on the blank paper, cutting out the animals (cutting a square around the animal), sorting the animals in hibernating and non-hibernating animals, and gluing them into the hibernating cave or outside the hibernation cave. This served as an excellent formative assessment activity, as I was able to see immediately how well students were learning about our topic.
2) At the teacher's assistant table, students used clip-art of several animals that hibernate to make patterns on a sentence strip. Developing students used pictures of three animals to make a simple 1-2-3, 1-2-3 pattern, while upper level students were asked to use pictures of four animals and make a pattern that used a double (ex: 1-1-2-3-4).
3) At the independent table, developing students were given a counting page, and asked to count the number of hibernating animals. Upper students completed a hibernating animals addition page.
4) In the library, students worked with animal puzzles.
Thursday (Science):
Students discussed cold weather changes, and how animals, hibernating or not, stayed warm in the winter. We conducted a science experiment to test one of our theories. We made "gloves" using two sandwich bags surrounding a layer of Crisco shortening. Student discussed how this was fat, just like animals have underneath their fur. We tested whether this additional layer of fat would keep us warm when sticking our hands into a bowl full of ice. The students loved this activity, and especially loved working with the fat.
Friday (fun day):
On Friday, we had a hibernation party. Students wore their pajamas to school, and each brought a stuffed bear. We participated in the following activities:
- Fish-shaped rice krispee treats. Students used cookie cutters to make these, and ate them, pretending to be bears getting ready to hibernate
- Bear berry recipe. Students make small cups filled with berries. Each student had to follow the "recipe" printed on a card (15 blueberries, 5 cherries, etc), in order to make the perfect bear food.
- Playing in the bear cave, with the stuffed bears
- Musical fish (played just like musical chairs, but we used large fish cut outs instead of chairs to keep the hibernating bear theme).
- Who woke the bear?! (played just like Who woke the baby?, but let students pretend they are a hibernating bear in the middle of the circle).
- Bear hunt. My students really love the book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, by Helen Oxenbury. While reading the book, I had my assistant hide everyone's stuffed bear. We then went on a bear hunt in the classroom to find all the hiding bears.
- Making a forest. Student were given tree branches, glue, brown playdough, and plastic forest animals. Student created a forest for the animals, and made hibernation caves out of the dough. Students really liked this activity, and would stay at the table for quite some time (plus it was not as messy as I thought it would be)
- Our party concluded with our own "hibernation" (aka rest time).
