Tucking our bears in for a long winter’s sleep

A great way for your students to enjoy learning about hibernation!

Yesterday, I shared with you how we built our own bears as a part of our unit on hibernation.  After all the stuffing, drawing, and building of our bears, the children thought they might be tired.  We all decided that our bears would need a nice, cozy place to take a nap.  Today, I would like to share how we made caves for our bears and then tucked them in for a long winter’s sleep…

Preparing the Process

To make caves for our bears, we used heavy duty cardboard tubes that Deborah and I hot glued on to the lid of a shoe box. We also used brown paint in a variety of colors, along with some brown tissue paper to give our caves some added texture…

Painting their Caves

The children began by painting their cardboard tubes and boxes…

Adding to the Process

The children could choose to paint as much or as little of their “caves” as they wanted. We also had tissue paper that could be scrunched up and added to the caves for texture. We added just a little bit of glue to the paint to ensure that the tissue paper would stick.

Every Creation is Unique

We had a variety of caves, some with tissue and some without.  Some that were painted completely and some that were not.  Because just like our own homes, bears’ caves are not all similar and can be quite unique…

When the children were finished painting their caves, they were ready to tuck their bears into sleep. Because we were painting on cardboard, it didn’t take long at all for the paint to dry. This was a good thing because the children were eager to get their bears into their caves so that their bears could rest. Our bears fit quite snug in their caves, so Deborah and I helped a few of the children gently squeeze their bears into their cave.

Preparing for Hibernation

When their bears were tucked away nicely into their caves, the children placed their newly hibernating friends in a quiet area of our classroom. This happened to be in our dimly lit stairwell. It was just out of the way enough that we would not bother our bears too much as they slept the winter away…

You can be sure that every time our children passed the bears on the stairway, they said: “Shhh… the bears are sleeping…”

Countdown to Spring

We also created our own calendar to mark off the days till spring so that we would know when to wake our bears.  Please join us here tomorrow as we wake up our bears and share how we played with our bears all around the classroom!

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Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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