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November is the perfect time to talk about hibernation!! We ended our bear theme with some hibernation activities specifically intended for preschool.
Did you know that most bears actually snore when they are hibernating?? Bear Snores On is my favorite read aloud about hibernation, and if you’ve been following my posts, you know we’ve been reading Karma Wilson books all week. Another fun story about hibernation is Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming.
Before we started our activities for the day, I pulled some things from around the house to set up a “Bear Bedtime Station” for the kids to play. I gathered teddy bears, small pillows, small blankets, a new toothbrush, a comb, a container to use as a small bath, an empty shampoo bottle, a washcloth and several bear board books. I also made station signs to go with all these components that I am happy to share with you at the bottom of this post.
My preschooler, Emmett, took great care of his bear. He combed his hair, gave him a bath, and actually had him “go potty” before bed as well. As he tucked his bears in bed, he noticed they needed a stuffed animal. So he ran up to his room to get two small plush toys for the bears to hold as they slept. Then he listened as I read everyone (bears and people) bedtime stories from our book basket.
Emmett is not the only one who took good care of our bears. My toddler, Lillian, got a turn with our bear station too. She meticulously brushed the bear’s teeth, combed their hair, placed them on their pillows and covered them up with their blankets.
She happily looked at bedtime books with her bears then even climbed in “bed” herself as she tucked everyone in for a long winter’s nap. Emmett was surprised to see Lillian had decided to hibernate too!
Our next hibernation activity was just for Emmett. I set up some materials to challenge him to build a den for our small plastic bears. I gave him wooden blocks from our Contraptions kit, small sticks, and some smooth stones to work with. He ended up making three dens, one for each of the bears. (Although, we did learn polar bears don’t actually hibernate. Pregnant mothers will stay in the den, but their heart rate and temperature never decrease.)
Once he was done building, he did some experiments to see which den was the strongest. He built and rebuilt them several times and ended with all three bears together in the strongest den. It was sort of a 3-little-bears-and-the-big-bad-Emmett scenario. He loved it!
If you would like to try this activity with your own little learners, I created a STEM station sign for you to use! Just click the icon below and download it for FREE.
If you would like to grab your own set of wooden planks for this activity, click the image below for a link to the set that we used! They are the KEVA Contraptions 50 Plank Set. These are SO fun to build with and can be used to lots of fun STEM projects, loose parts play, block centers and experiments. The set comes with 6 build ideas, but endless possibilities!
I’ve also included a link to the bear family that use for this activity as well! Click on the image to grab your own set.
If you would like to set up a Bear Bedtime Station for your preschooler, here are some cute station signs you can use to organize your materials. Just press the button below to download!
Grab more materials for this fun set up by clicking the images below!
Do you need more learning games for your bear theme? Click the images below to get a closer look at the Bear Counting Activity and Bear Alphabet Sort!
As always, please comment below and let me know how your little learners liked these hibernation activities.
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Mrs Mama Bird 