Hibernation
Background Information & Activities

Hibernation is a state that some animals enter in the winter in order to survive a period when food is not readily available. Animals that hibernate enter a temporary condition in which their body temperatures drop significantly and their heart rate and breathing slow drastically. As a result, the animals use up less energy than when they are active. Hibernating animals, such as bats, ground squirrels, mouse lemurs, and European hedgehogs, do not need to eat or drink because their metabolism slows and their bodies can live off of stored fat.

Before going into hibernation, animals must store up fat. Some animals will lose half their weight over the winter, so it is important for them to bulk up in the fall. A black bear can gain as much as 30 pounds per week! Scientists believe that animals use temperature and amount of daylight to dictate when to begin eating and when to go into hibernation. When temperatures increase at the beginning of spring, the animals wake up. Some animals, such as bears, sleep for most of the winter but wake up intermittently and forage for food when the temperature is a little warmer. These animals are not true hibernators; they actually enter a milder state, torpor, in the winter. During torpor, an animal's body temperature does not drop as much.

Hibernation can be applied pretty generally, and your child may learn about animals that sleep through the winter and hibernate even if scientists do not consider the animal true hibernators. It is important for your child to understand why some animals enter hibernation during the winter. Do not bog him or her down with semantics at this age; instead, stress big ideas. Animals get energy by consuming food; because there is less food available in the winter, animals enter hibernation to conserve energy and to survive the winter.

Hibernation Teacher Activities – Click Here!

Hibernation Family Activities – Click Here!

Hibernation Teacher Activities

Pajama Day

Host a Pajama Day, where students imagine what it would be like to sleep through the winter. First, have students research the change in hibernating animals’ body temperature, heart rate, and breaths per minute. Have students lie down on the carpet and count how many times they breathe per minute. Have them imagine what it would be like to breathe only once or twice per minute. Take one student’s pulse, which should be anywhere between 80 and 130 beats per minute. Now have the student imagine that his or her heart was beating only 5-10 times per minute, like a hibernating animal’s. Have students write or discuss their experiences.

To extend the activity, you can throw a Groundhog’s Day party to celebrate the end of hibernation. Discuss what happens to animals when they come out of hibernation and what may or may not be different about their environments.

Hibernation Skit

Divide students into pairs or small groups and have some students imagine they are tree squirrels and other students imagine they are ground squirrels. Explain that tree squirrels stay awake in the winter, while ground squirrels hibernate. Have pairs or groups write skits where the tree squirrel describes what winter is like to the ground squirrel. Students can also write skits where the ground squirrel describes what hibernation is like. These skits can be scientific, with students sharing their observations of winter, or descriptive, with students sharing all the funny things humans do during the winter (sledding, caroling, catching snowflakes on their tongue, etc). Students can perform the skits in front of the class.

To extend the activity, students can write skits about how other animals survive through the winter. Students may discuss animals that migrate, grow thicker fur, etc.

Hibernation Poems

Have students write hibernation poetry in the form of haikus, acrostic poems, or shape poems to decorate the classroom. Collect the poems and make a class book of hibernating animals. Each student can decorate his or her page with different hibernating animals.

Math Connections

Many interesting hibernation statistics can be explored as math problems at your student’s grade level. Find statistics on several different hibernating animals. Pose math inquiries that will prompt charts, bar graphs, and pictographs. Possible questions might be: Which animal hibernates the longest? How does the animal’s hibernating heartbeat compare to its normal heartbeat? Which animal breathes the slowest? From the data they’ve compared, can students make any conclusions about all animals that hibernate?

Hibernation Sort

Play a hibernation sorting game. Using animal pictures or photographs, have students sort the animals into different categories, such as animals that hibernate and animals that do not. If your students have already studied migration, they may want to make a category for animals that survive the winter by migrating. Have students label their categories and paste them onto poster board to display for the rest of the class.

Hibernation Family Activities

Hibernation Hunt

Go on a nature hunt during the winter months. Be on the lookout for hibernating or dormant insects under logs, rocks, and leaves. Notice animals that you see. They are not hibernators. If there is snow, look for tracks and try to think about what animals might have made the tracks. If you cannot find animals or insects, ask your child to think about where the animals might be hibernating.

Hibernation Sing

You can find a wealth of hibernating animal poems and songs on the internet. They might be fun to learn on winter car trips. Encourage your child to write his or her own. Pick a tune that he or she knows and write new lyrics about hibernating animals. As your child writes, discuss important facts about hibernation that he or she might want to add in the song.

Pros and Cons

Would your child like to hibernate through the winter? Why or why not? Help your child make a pro-and-con chart to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of hibernating. What would your child miss by sleeping through the winter? Where would your child hibernate? How would he or she prepare for hibernation?