Animals in Winter Hibernation Sensory Activity

The air is getting crisper.  The trees have lost their orange, red, & yellow leaves.  It's time for extra layers to keep us warm.  But what about the animals?  Teach your child where animals go in winter with this hibernation preschool theme activity!  This no-mess sensory activity is great for toddlers, preschoolers, and Kindergarten kiddos!

At the end of this post, our Creative Preschool friends came up with more great hibernation preschool activities!  With hibernation books and activities, there are plenty of ways to explore animals in winter with your little ones!

Honestly, for this preschool hibernation theme, I felt kind of stuck.... until I remembered the fun we had with our Going on a Bear Hunt Sensory Bags.  Then inspiration struck to create another sensory bag to explore animals in winter;  your little ones will love this hands-on, mess-free hibernation preschool theme activity!

Prior to setting up this Hibernation Sensory Bag, we read some books explaining hibernation and animals that hibernate.

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Animals in Winter Booklist

• Do Bears Sleep in Hollow Trees

• Hibernation Station

• Time to Sleep

• Over and Under the Snow

After learning about animal hibernation from the book, Do Polar Bears Snooze in Hollow Trees, I was inspired to put together a sensory bag that works on fine motor and matching skills.

Try this hibernation preschool activity with your preschool aged child!

Hibernation Preschool Theme

Supplies:

• Gallon Sized Bag

• Large Mosaic Stones

• Corn Syrup or hair gel

• Animal Stickers

• Sharpie

• Duct Tape

How To Set Up this Hibernation Preschool Activity:

To create this unique sensory challenge, place a sticker on each stone.

Draw out your scene with a black sharpie on the gallon sized plastic bag.  I created a hollow tree, a cave, and a few places for animals to burrow underground or near a pond.

Add in some corn syrup {or hair gel} to your ziplock bag.

Next, add your stones to the bag.

Zip and tape up the bag.

Move the gems around so they get mixed in with the corn syrup and it is ready to manipulate!

Present the sensory bag to your child and have him/her manipulate the animal gems into the place that it would hibernate.

Please note that bears and raccoons do not experience true hibernation, but for the sake of keeping things simple with little ones, we used those two animals in our activity.

Bears hibernate in caves.

Raccoons curl up in hollow trees.

Frogs actually freeze solid.

And, squirrels and skunks bury themselves in the ground.

This activity is a creative way to explore where animals go in the winter time with little ones!

More Preschool Hibernation Theme Activities:

• Build a Cave Engineering Challenge from Hand Made Kids Art

• Paper Bag and Toilet Roll Hibernating Bear Craft from Pink Stripey Socks

• Paper Bag Chipmunk Kid Craft from I Heart Crafty Things

• Paper Plate Bear Craft from A Little Pinch of Perfect

• Hedgehog Hibernation Preschool Craft from Artsy Momma

More Sensory Activities from School Time Snippets:

• Going on a Bear Hunt Sensory Bags

• Messy Prewriting Activity

• Follow the Texture Road

• Name Recognition Sensory Bag