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Lesson Plan: Hibernation (Gr 1)

Subject:  Science

Grade: 1

Lesson Objective: To learn about why and how animals hibernate

Common Core Standard:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1- Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

Materials:

Starter:

Say:

  • Why do you think animals hibernate?  (Allow the students to answer.)

Main:

Say:

  • Animals hibernate so that they can survive the winter.  Animals hibernate when the weather gets very cold.
  • The animals that hibernate would not be able to find food during the winter.  So, instead of not being able to find food and being hungry, they hibernate.
  • Mammals such as bears, chipmunks, bats and groundhogs hibernate.  Other animals such as frogs, snakes, bees, lizards, snails and fish all hibernate.
  • It would be very hard for all of these animals to find the food that they eat.  They eat plants, berries and nuts.  These do not grow in the winter.
  • How do you think animals hibernate?  (Allow the students to answer.)
  • Animals hibernate by slowing their body down.  Place your hand on your chest and feel how it goes up and down when you breathe.  You breathe around 20 times in a minute.  If you were to hibernate, you would be able to slow your breathing down so that you only breathed one or two times in a minute.
  • By slowing their bodies down, animals do not need to eat and they can sleep for a long time.
  • Some animals hibernate all winter and some animals only hibernate for a few months.
  • There are other animals that are able to wake up from hibernation to eat some food that they have stored and then they go back to sleep.
  • I am going to read to you a little more about hibernation.  You will then answer questions about what I am going to read.
  • Does anyone have any questions?

Feedback:

Say:

  • Who would like to share your answers?  (Allow the students to share)

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Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer

Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.

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