Winter Dens for Bears

Make a hibernating bear den is one of the most beloved activities in the kindergarten.  See this post from last year:  Bear Dens.    This year I changed it up a bit and had the child glue the brown bag upside down on the paper plate.  I teach the children to use "tabbing" which is simply cutting slits to make a folded tab to glue down.  We use glue sticks.

 Each child cut their own opening in the bag.   This year I was given a huge bag of pine cones.  So we added trees!  I had a parent volunteer hot glue the pine cones on to the plate for us - the children chose their "trees" and told her where to glue it.

 The children added "snow" to the trees and the den.  (make snow by filling a dixie cup with shaving cream, add one good squeeze of white paint and one squeeze of glue.  Mix with a popsicle stick.)

 A dixie cup of snow paint goes a long ways.

 Do you see the bear inside the den?  Each child drew their own bear (or bears).

 This bear is not yet in his den. . .

Busy making bears!

Notice the food sources?  This student added a pond with fresh fish and berries. . . just in case her bear was awaken from his deep hibernation!