Rainbow Connection: Animals in Winter

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Animals in Winter

All aboard for the train from Hibernation Station! Woo! Woo!

We read this book and Bear Snores On to learn about what some animals do in the winter.

Our wild rabbit friends, work hard searching for food. They seek shelter in underground dens they have lined with grass, straw and twigs to keep them warm.

Here is a bunny with ears so funny

(Make bunny ears with two fingers)

Here is a hole in the ground

(Use other hand to make a "hole", a fist turned so that the open part is on top)

When a noise he hears, he perks up his ears

(hands to ears as if listening)

And he jumps in the hole in the ground.

(Place bunny ears from one hand into "hole" in the other hand)

Raccoon friends climb into their soft bed in a hollow trunk to sleep until the cold days pass.

Our animal friends like bears and groundhogs hibernate- they take a long, winter nap. They sleep soundly until spring.

Grizzly bear, oh grizzly bear is sleeping in a cave.

Please be very quiet, very very quiet.

Shhhhh...

If you wake him (her)

If you shake him (her)

He'll (she'll) get very mad!

Animal friends like the polar bears in our books,

The Three Snow Bears

and Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?,

have heavy fur coats and blubber to keep them warm so that they can play in the snow all winter long.

Some birds migrate south for the cold winter months. Birds and other animals that stick around, must search hard for a winter meal of seeds, so people often lend a hand.

We made strings of cheerios and

pine cone bird feeders.

We took them to the "jungle" and hung them in the tree for the animals for Christmas. We added apples, oranges and peanuts to the collection of gifts to leave on and under the tree.

Our "deer" animal friends get a thick, warm coat for winter and stay in their woodland homes occasionally munching on seeds, twigs and buds found on and among the trees.