Hibernation Craft

About this resource

One hibernation craft to color, cut and glue, plus a hibernate-or-not animal sort, the bear's year in three pictures, a chant and writing on three levels, in one print-and-go winter craft for PreK to 2nd grade.

The craft is a brown bear asleep in a snowy cave, with pine trees, falling snowflakes and a few zzz. It is cut into 9 equal squares in three columns and three rows, so every cut is a straight line and there are only a few cuts. Children color the black-and-white pieces (or use the ready-colored set when coloring is not the goal that day), cut them out and glue each piece on its faint twin. Every glue box is exactly the size of its piece, and the nine pieces make the whole scene. A picture step page shows every step with one short sentence each, and a small finished model sits on the page so a child can check their work.

Then the bear goes to work. Children cut 8 animal cards (a bear, frog, bat and groundhog that sleep all winter, and a deer, fox, rabbit and wolf that stay awake) and glue each one on the right row. On the bear's year page they trace a sentence for fall, winter and spring and draw the bear in each. Our own original chant, five short lines with a picture for each, gives you something to say and clap together. Three writing pages start from the sleeping bear: trace and draw, fill in the sentences with a word bank, or write freely. A dream-bubble page asks what the bear is dreaming. Every student page has one short instruction with a picture and a "My name" line.

What'S Inside

• Start Here: how the craft works, a note on the sort, the three levels and a five-day plan
• Meet the bear: the finished scene with 5 labels (ear, pine tree, sleeping, cave, snow) and four animals that hibernate
• A word bank page: 6 words (bear, cave, snow, tree, sleep, moon) to trace and write on handwriting lines
• Our chant: five lines, each with a picture
• The bear craft: a picture step page, 9 pieces to color and cut, the same 9 pieces ready-colored, and a glue page with the 9 twins
• A hibernate-or-not sort with 8 animal cards and 8 glue boxes
• The bear's year: fall, winter and spring, a sentence to trace and a box to draw in for each
• A color-the-scene page: the big cave outline with two sentence starters
• Writing on three levels (trace and draw, fill in, write freely) and a dream-bubble page
• A "Who Did What This Week" class data page, with the sort answers
• A family letter to send home
• A credits page (font and art license)

19 pages in all, 14 of them for students.

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page has big squares lined up edge to edge, 2.1 inches for the scene pieces and 1.7 inches for the sort cards. 26 pieces to cut in all (9 black-and-white pieces, 9 ready-colored pieces and 8 sort cards). You will need crayons, scissors and glue sticks. Card stock suits the craft pages.

Three Skill Levels

A small shape beside the name line marks each leveled page (circle, square or triangle). Easier: trace and draw, or a partner who holds the glue stick. Harder: writing freely and the dream-bubble page.

Who This Is For

PreK to 2nd grade classrooms, self-contained special education classrooms, and paraprofessionals who want a hibernation craft with writing attached, ready to print.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A printable PDF (print and cut). It is not Google Slides, Docs or PowerPoint, and it has no fillable fields. It makes no claim about any student's age or rate of progress. The sort answers are on the data page; check them against your own region and science materials.