Do you teach about animals and winter? Where we live in Ohio, winter can be messy, it is the perfec
t time to teach the children what animals are doing. We talk about three different things, hibernation, migration, and adaptation. It is a fun little unit that we typically learn about after the holidays are over.
We begin the unit by reading “Time to Sleep” by Denise Fleming. Not only are her books amazing, she is from our area which makes it extra fun! This book is fiction, however it does include animals that hibernate, which is a great lead into our unit. For writing, we read “Hibernation” by Tori Kosara and work on informational text. Together we create a little bear filled with facts.
My students are great informational text writers. I think it is honestly the easiest writing to teach. They use their webs to create a story with an introduction, at least three details and a conclusion. (Here you can see the beginning of one of my student’s writing piece.)
Then, we read my little mini booklet about hibernation and migration. We discuss the similarities and differences by completing a venn diagram. We write an opinion piece too. We have to choose if we would rather hibernate or migrate.
Finally, we end the unit by discussing if we would or would not want to hibernate. We make these cute little bears to go with our writing.
To make these bears, I give my students one large 12×18 piece of gray paper. I have them draw a semi-circle on the paper and tear their cave. I STRESS that caves are bumpy and each one is different. Then we use brown paper. I have my students draw an oval and circle for the body and head. Then we use scraps for the rest. NO SCISSORS allowed on this project and they are adorable.