Last updated: July 26, 2022
Lesson Plan
Preparing for Winter
- Grade Level:
- Lower Elementary: Pre-Kindergarten through Second Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 30 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Strand 2.2: Living Things and their Habitats
Standard 2.2.1 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about patterns of living things (plants and animals, including humans) in different habitats. - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words.
Essential Question
How do animals prepare for winter?
Objective
Students will be able to:
a. Name three things animals do to survive the winter.
b. Describe what bees do to survive the winter.
Background
Animals get energy by consuming food. Because less food is available in the winter, animals use different techniques to obtain and conserve energy to survive. Different animals use different strategies to survive winter - including hibernation, migration, storing food, and thermoregulation.
Utah Science with Engineering Education Standards:
Strand 2.2: Living Things and their Habitats - Living things need water, air, and resources from the land to survive and live in habitats that provide these necessities. Animals have modified behaviors that help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
Standard 2.2.1 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about patterns of living things (plants and animals, including humans) in different habitats. Emphasize the diversity of living things in land and water habitats. Examples of patterns in habitats could include descriptions of temperature or precipitation and the types of plants and animals found in land habitats. (LS2.C, LS4.C, LS4.D)
Preparation
Gather the following materials:
Pictures of animals that migrate, hibernate, store food, and stay active for document camera; large habitat poster; nectar beads, plates, music player and speaker (to play sandhill crane calls and/or bee flying music); 1 bottle of honey (16oz); 4 honeycomb boxes.
Procedure
Before the lesson, set out 6 plates or “flowers” in separate corners of the room - each containing about 70 nectar beads.
1) Hang a poster showing fall transitioning into winter on the board and ask students what season they think the poster shows and why. Ask students if they have noticed winter is coming and to describe evidence they've observed to support this observation. Ask if anyong noticed their behavior changes from summer to fall and winter? For example: they might eat different foods, do different activities after school or wear different clothes. Animals, like humans, notice the change of the season and do many kinds of things to stay fed and warm so they can survive in winter. Have students share their prior knowledge about things animals do when winter comes. (5 min)
2) Show student pictures of animals under the document camera. Discuss what each group of animals does to survive the winter: hibernate, migrate, stores food, and remain active. When discussing animals hibernating, tell students hibernating animals need to slow down to conserve energy. Show students how to find their pulse and count for 30 seconds. During hibernation, a hibernating groundhog has a heartbeat of 10 beats per minute. For one minute, countdown every six seconds and have students clap for every beat. When discussing animals that migrate, play the sound of sandhill cranes and explain that sandhill cranes migrate through Moab every fall and spring on their way to their summer and winter homes.
3) Tell students you want to discuss what a very important creature to our world does in the winter. Show students a picture of a honeybee. Explain that honeybees eat honey, which they make from nectar from flowers. Ask students if flowers are out during winter. Honeybees need to make all the honey they need for the entire winter during the spring, summer, and fall. This means honeybees stockpile food for the winter.
4) Explain that honeybees have big families, and ask which students also come from big families. Show photographs of the hive and the queen. Explain that the job of the worker bees is to collect nectar. Tell them you are going to turn them all into worker bees and their job will be to gather nectar from flowers and bring it back to the hive. The buzzing of bees is from their fast wingbeats. Demonstrate how students will flap their hands and buzz while they are working. Have students practice flapping their wings (using short arms) and making buzzing sounds.
5) Divide students into four groups or “hives”. Make sure students know where to collect nectar and bring the nectar. Have worker bees buzz to a flower and bring back one bead at time. Worker bees transform the nectar into honey in their stomach, so students should pretend to regurgitate it into the queen’s honeycomb. See if hives can fill all of their honeycomb before you say the word “Winter,” which means students should freeze. (Or play a song such as “Flight of the Bumblebee” while students forage. Students should freeze when the music stops). Play for two rounds or more.
6) In real life, a beehive consumes up to 30lbs of honey over the winter. Show students a bottle of honey and tell them each hive needs 30 jars to survive the winter. Ask students what would happen if the bees did not have enough honey.
7) Conclude by asking students which of these activities people do in the winter, since humans often copy animal behavior to survive. For example, before we had modern grocery stores, we used to store food for winter, like honeybees. Some people still do. Ask if any of the students’ families saved food from their gardens by canning or freezing.
Additional Resources
Bancroft, Henrietta, Van Gelder, Richard. (1996) Animals in winter. HarperCollins
Brady, I. (1998). The redrock canyon explorer. Talent, OR: Nature Works.
Cornell, J. (1979). Sharing nature with children. Nevada City, CA: Ananda Publications.
Hall, Kristen, Arsenault, Isabell. (2018) The Honeybee. New York, NY Simon and Schuster
Schwartz, C. W., Schwartz, E. R., Dryden, B., & Bassett, B. (1993). About mammals and how they live. Jefferson City, MO (P.O. Box 180, Jefferson City 65102-0180): Missouri Dept. of Conservation.
Williams, D. (2000). A naturalist’s guide to canyon country. Helena, MT: Falcon Publishing.