During winter’s coldest months, it’s common for individuals to feel like hibernating. Miller Avenue School first grade students in Carly Bossung’s and kindergarten and first grade students in Krista LaBarbera’s classes did just that during a special Hibernation Day. 

Students dressed in their warmest and snuggest pajamas and crawled on all fours into their “cave room” through a hibernation cave doorway where they had opportunities to engage in various animal/hibernation–themed learning throughout the school day. They made hibernation crowns and worked on “bears in a cave” math, focusing on the different ways to make a total of 10. They sequenced author Karma Wilson’s “Bears Snores On,” discovered which animals hibernate and where, and wrote their own imaginative writing to the prompt “If I were an animal who hibernated.” The students also participated in a science experiment that simulated how stored fat keeps animals warm all winter.  

Hibernation Day was surely an activity that kindergarten students will never forget.