Fun Bear Craft for the Preschool Hibernation Theme

Inside: How to make a fun bear craft for the preschool hibernation theme. These sweet bears are fun to make and then get tucked into their beds for the winter!

One of our favorite winter activities involves an adorable stuffed paper bear and a bed.

As we explore our winter theme, we talk about animals that sleep during the winter. While bears don’t hibernate like other animals, they enter a lighter sleep-state called torpor. Bears can sleep more than 100 days without eating or drinking. For this reason, we do include bears in our hibernation theme, but we talk about how it’s different than with true hibernating animals.

Preschoolers are especially drawn to bears because there are so many picture books with main characters that are bears, and because many of them have special attachments to stuffed teddy bears.

So, when we had the children make their own stuffed bears that needed to sleep in beds, they were beyond excited!

Fun Bear Craft for the Preschool Hibernation Theme

What you will need for this bear activity:

Teddy bear outline (you might need to adjust the size)
Brown construction paper
Colorful buttons
Assorted pom poms
Googly eyes, or the children can draw their own eyes
Scraps of fabric and some larger pieces for the blankets
Shoebox
and any other embellishments you desire!

The first step:

Cut 2 bears shapes for each bear that will be made.
Cut small hearts from the fabric.

Start adorning the bear:

Place materials on a table and invite the children to decorate their bears.

Let the bears dry.

Staple, stuff, and then staple again.

Once bears are dry, staple them on top of another bear-shaped brown piece of paper. Leave an opening so they can be stuffed. Stuff the bears with a bit of newspaper and then staple closed.