Inside: This collection of preschool hibernation activities is a fun addition to the winter theme. Packed with an assortment of ideas for your homeschool or classroom!
After we explore snow and ice, we start finding hibernation activities for preschoolers.
We learn what animals do during the winter, that bears sleep a lot in caves.
We also tie this in with our day and night theme, having a pajama day.
I’ve put together this collection of hibernation activities, crafts, snacks, songs and books that you can use in your preschool classroom or homeschool.
It’s sorted by different categories to make planning easier!
Make sure to scroll down to find your free bear printables!
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25+ of the Best Preschool Hibernation Activities
ART: Make stuffed bears and tuck them into bed for the winter.
ART: Print off the free pattern to make a paper bag skunk. (I Heart Crafty Things)
ART: Make a hedgehog from a pine cone. (Red Ted Art)
DRAMATIC PLAY: Turn your dramatic play area into a bear’s den.
DRAMATIC PLAY: Create a large cave for kids to crawl into and pretend to hibernate. (Raising Cajuns)
DRAMATIC PLAY: Create hibernating animal puppets using this free printable (Lovetoteach)
FINE MOTOR: After making a hibernation sensory bag, manipulate the animals to find places they can hibernate. (School Time Snippets)
FINE MOTOR: Download one of these bear printables for a fine motor activity. (Totally Tots)
STEM: Add some engineering by making dens for winter animals. (Fun-a-Day)
SENSORY BIN: Scoop rice to hide the animals for winter. (Busy Toddler)
SENSORY BIN: Put the animals in a mitten with this fun sensory activity. (Little Bins for Little Hands)
LITERACY: After reading Every Autumn Comes the Bear, make a cave from a paper plate. (Almost Unschoolers)
LITERACY: When finished reading Time To Sleep, make this painted bear craft. (Preschool Powol Packets)
LITERACY: After making bear caves, you can turn them into a letter recognition game. (Fantastic Fun and Learning)
COLORS: Sort colored bears and place them in their matching caves.
MATH: Strengthen math skills while playing this bear more or less game. (Pre-K Pages)
MATH: While reading the book Bear Counts, sort and count plastic counting bears.
COOKING: Invite the children to make yummy snacks that go with the hibernation theme. (Preschool Plan-It)
COOKING: Use a simple bread recipe to make some delicious hedgehog rolls. (Rainy Day Mum)
SNACK: After reading Bear Snores On, makes some honey tea. (My Story Time Corner)
CENTERS: Trillium Montessori shares many hibernating activities for kids. (I love their unit studies shelf!)
CENTERS: Welcome to Mommyhood in Holland shares ideas for a hibernation activity shelf.
CIRCLE TIME: Recite the rhyme I’m a Big, Big Bear while also moving the body. (Preschool Powol Packets)
SCIENCE: Explore hibernation with this hedgehog hibernation basket. (The Imagination Tree)
MUSIC: Sing one of these hibernation songs. (Fun 4 Kids)
MUSIC: This Five Brown Bears song is a fun way to work on counting skills. (Flannel Board Fun)
What about toddlers?
Check out how we created a hibernation theme that was tailored for our youngest students: How to Teach Toddlers About Animals that Hibernate
Books for your hibernation theme:
More ideas for young children:
25 Learning Themes for Preschoolers
Preschool Winter Circle Time Ideas
Make sure you are following our winter Pinterest board!
FREE Bear Printables
Click on the photos below for the pdf downloads:
Planning your winter theme? We’ve done the work for you!
I am the co-author of these winter theme lesson plans.
24 preschool learning activities for your winter theme, including literacy, math, science, art, fine motor, and more! A great resource for teachers and homeschoolers.
24 preschool learning activities that cover
- Literacy
- Math
- Science
- Fine Motor
- Sensory
- Gross Motor
- Art
- Social Studies
- Music
- Circle Time
- Social/Emotional
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Thank you for sharing all of these resources! I feel like we can make a really creative hibernation activity out of this. I think they would really love to make the bear cave and singing those songs!