Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Preschool Hibernation Nature Theme Fun: "Sleepy Bears and Buddies"

Thursday our topic in class was "Sleepy Bears and Buddies."

...We talked about how some animals get sleepy during the cold months. Some of those animals sleep deeply all through the winter until springtime (they hibernate, like bats and snails), some animals such as bears and raccoons sleep more lightly and wake up every so often until springtime (which is called torpor.)

... Everyone brought a special teddy bear guest...

... and we made our guests little cozy caves out of recycled cardboard boxes, paints, and tissue paper scraps...

... We also had a big preschool-person-sized cave set up for pretending in (made from a card table and draped blankets.) We pretended to be sleepy bears. Then we put our teddy bears on top of the cave, next to the cave and inside the cave...

...We read these books together:


...And some flipped through these books at the discovery table:

...We walked the trails, looking for comfy spots where animals might like to sleep...

...And sang this hibernation song with puppet buddies:

"Bear is sleeping
Bear is sleeping,
in her cave
in her cave,
wonder when she'll wake up
wonder when she'll wake up,
in the spring
in the spring..."
(we started with a bear puppet buddy and followed with: bat in her cave, skunk in his den, ground squirrel in the ground, ladybug under a log, snail in her shell, turtle in the pond.)

Heard during parent pickup:
Mom: "What did you learn about today?"
Child: "Animals who sleep a lot during the winter because it gets really cold."
Mom: "Oh yeah?"
Child: "Yes, and they wake up in the SWING!"

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