Bears and Hibernation

People should be able to hibernate. A nap that lasts a couple of months sounds just great to a sleep-deprived mom (although the idea might seem like a nightmare to a toddler)! So why and how do bears hibernate? How do they prepare to hibernate? What do they do when they wake up? How many different kinds of bears are there? Which species live near us? These are some questions I will explore with my toddler as we read books, do activities, and work on crafts to explore the topic of bears. 

We started this Thursday by watching some Youtube videos of grizzlies in Alaska catching salmon. While that was on in the background, we flipped through a book about grizzly bears, and then read the book Baby Grizzly. I told her about how the mothers and cubs tend to go to fish at a different time from the males, since the males can be aggressive towards cubs. 

Activity

We built a couple of "dens," using blankets to make forts. We crawled around pretending to be bears. Then I grabbed some stuffed animals and started throwing them around and making them flop like fish. We have a couple of stuffed fish, and just pretended they were salmon so Evie could catch them and "eat" them (sorry, Dory). She ate some on the spot, and carried a few back to her den. We pretended to go around the room and eat nuts and berries, and talked about how we had to eat a lot to build up fat for our winter's hibernation. Then we laid in the den and read books and pretended to hibernate (while snoring loudly). We talked about our heart rates and metabolisms slowing, and how a mother bear has her babies during the winter. 

Before nap time, we had a snack of berries. We ate blueberries while reading Blueberries for Sal, and some raspberries and blackberries while reading Jamberry. 

Books

• Where is the Bear? by Betty Hubka
• Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
• Jingle Bear by Stephen Cosgrove
• Jamberry by Bruce Degen
• Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell
• Baby Grizzly by Beth Spanjian
• Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
• A Bed for the Winter by Karen Wallace
• Grizzly Bears: Huge Hibernating Mammals by Rebecca E. Hirsch
• You and Me, Little Bear by Martin Waddell
• Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett
• Un Oso se ha Perdido! por Karen Hayles y Jenny Jones
• Let's Go Home, Little Bear by Martin Waddell

Crafts

• Peekaboo Bear Cave: Use a paper cup, a popsicle stick, some colored construction paper (Evie decided that she wanted a black bear), glue, and brown paper (we cut up a lunch bag). Cut out a bear shape and glue it to one end of the popsicle stick. Cover the cup in brown paper, and punch a hole in the bottom of the cup for the other end of the popsicle stick. Now your bear can move in and out of their cave. 

• Lunch bag bear habitat: Cut a lunch bag in half, then rip a hole in the bottom for the cave mouth. Glue paper trees with canopies cut from foam to the sides. We used fall colors to set the scene for bears preparing to hibernate. We cut a stream from blue foam for the bears to drink and fish. Then we grabbed some little toy bears from the toy chest, and Evie played with the little scene. 

• Winter Bear Picture: Black paper, yellow paper, cardboard, cotton balls and glue. Peel parts of the top layer of the cardboard back to make the dirt, and cut out a cave. Pull cotton balls apart and glue the fluff above the cave for snow. Cut out moon and stars and glue to the sky. Then stick two googly eyes in the cave. Yes, bears are supposed to be asleep and hibernating in winter. However, the females do wake up to give birth. And if you were squeezing out a bear cub, I bet your eyes would bug out just as much.