Getting Ready for Winter

Today we talked about how animals and people get ready for winter. We played a fun little game with my daughter's bear and a bunch of her clothes. I would make up a story of what the weather looked like when Mr. Bear got up in the morning and then they would take turns picking out something that Mr. Bear needed to wear for that day. We discussed how it was fun to do that with a stuffed animal to learn the ways people dress and stay warm in the winter time but how it is very different from what real bears and other animals do to get ready for winter.

The children learned that a lot of animals collect and eat more food before winter comes.
They get more fat and fur on their bodies to keep them warm during the cold months.
And some animals even hibernate during the winter.

I found this really cute video on National Geographic kids that talked about Mother Polar Bears that hibernate. The kids really loved the baby cubs.

Polar Bear VIdeo

After watching the video we did an experiment that we also did last year that shows the kids how extra fat can keep them warm. All you need to do it put Crisco into 2 ziplock bags. Then put both of those bags in another ziplock bag. The kids first touch some ice water with their bare hand and then compare it to putting their hand in the middle of the fat and then touching the water. Their hand stays very warm in the crisco bag.

After doing the experiment we made some trail mix and they got to pretend they were hibernating and then when it was time to wake up they went to find there food. We made the trail mix with the following ingredients: 

1 cup pretzels

1 cup craisins ( I bought the cherry kind)

1 cup Gold fish

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup m &m's 

1 cup cheerios (any flavor)

It was really yummy and the kids really seemed to like it. 

Here are some books we read  today as well: