The idea for this study came from Olivia's great love to the "Bear" books by Karma Wilson. She can read the books along with me now. I would say she could read over half the words. It was very exciting for both her and I. We had a great time reading about animals and how they adapt to winter, when it is cold and food is scarce. We talked about hibernation, migration, and adaptation. We read about many animals but put the the ones she liked best on the cover.
We defined hibernation, migration, and adaptation. We looked at why animals need to do this. We talked about what happens to a hibernating animal and when they know to wake up. We talked about how bears are not considered true hibernators and what makes them different from other hibernating animals. We looked at some of the paths of a few migrating animals. Olivia likes to find places on the globe so this was exciting for her. We went over how animals prepare themselves in the fall time for the winter and then we touched on what they do as soon as they wake up in the spring time.
There were tons of books to read at the library. We also found some great websites online. One is a live camera watching a hibernating bear. We did some great activities like feeling our own heartbeats and breathing and then playing with a drum to simulate a hibernating animals heartbeat. We also pretended to hibernate and talked about what it would be like. Then we talked a little about how we, as humans deal with the colder winter weather.
A huge thanks to daddy for helping us with this lapbook. We had to make up many of our own mini books for this lapbook. Olivia's favorite animals were the bear of course and then the dormouse (also known as the hazel mouse).
