Alexandra Mendez-Zfass

Hibernation and Migration

Lesson Plan: 3.4b Life Processes

Introduction:

Lesson Topic: Investigating animal hibernation and migration

Length of Lesson: 45 minutes

Related Standard of Learning: 3.4b The student will investigate and understand that
adaptations allow animals to satisfy life needs and respond the environment. Key concepts
include b) physical adaptions.

Cognitive Objectives

Students will:
 Describe and investigate the terms hibernation, migration
 Observe and compare different ocean animal migrations

Materials/Technology and Advance Preparation

Materials/Technology:
 Interactive science journals
 Handout- “Animals that Migrate vs. Hibernate”, “The World” (A Winkel Triple Map)
 Google Ocean
 Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft
 Color crayons, pencils
 Scissors
 Glue

Advanced Preparation:
1. Create the handouts “Animals that Migrate vs. Hibernate”, “The World”
2. Prepare Google Ocean with tags that the students will use to look up different animal
migrations

Teaching and Learning Sequence

Introduction/Anticipatory Set:
 Write on the board- “Getting Ready for Winter”
 Ask the students, “How do you get ready for winter and the cold weather?”, Do you wear
different clothes or eat different food?”
 Tell students to turn to their partner and discuss what do we do to get ready for the cold
winter months
 Give 3 minutes for this

 Call on a couple of students and write their answers under the title “Getting Ready for
Winter”

 If answers such as “wear long sleeves, wear long pants, wear coats, stay inside, more
blankets, turn on heat” are not arrived upon, then tell the students that these are always
ways we prepare for winter

 Ask the students, “What about animals?”, “What do they do to get ready for winter?”

 Draw an hour from the “Getting Ready for Winter” title and write Animals on the board

 Tell students to now turn to a different partner and brainstorm these questions.

 Give 3 minutes for this

 Call on couple of students (hopefully different students from the ones that were
previously called on)

 Write their answers on the board under “Animals”

 Tell students that today we are going to be learning about two ways animals prepare for
winter: hibernation and migration.

 Pass out handout “Animals that Migrate vs. Hibernate”

 Tell students that the animals on the right of their handout migrate or travel south during
the winter to find warmer climate and food.

 Tell the students that the animals on the left of the handout sleep/rest, hibernate, during
the cold months.
  Pause for questioning

Lesson Development:
 Tell students to “migrate” to the Book Nook area and read a story about how animals
prepare for winter
 Tell the students to leave their handouts on their desks
 Read the title and author of the book Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft
 Show students the cover and ask, “What do you think the fox does to prepare for winter?”
 Call on a couple of students
 Read the book and enjoy
 Tell students to now return to their seats
 Tells students what we are going to now mimic an animal that hibernates
 Tell students to put their heads on their desk and close their eyes.
 Tell (in a whisper) to take a deep breathe in, relax, and be calm
 Tell students to now wake up, put two fingers from their left hand and place them on the
inside of their right wrist on right side (or vice versa)
 Demonstrate how to do this and pause for questioning
 Tell them to remain quiet and try to feel for their pulse
 Give 2 minutes for this
 Tell the students to try to remember what their pulse felt like
 Tell the students now get up and do jumping jacks (or they can remain seated and just
wave their hands up and down) for 30 seconds
 Tell students to now repeat the pulse process
 Ask the students, “What were the differences in your pulse while you were resting and
while you were moving around?”
 Call on a couple of students
 Ask the students, “How is this similar to hibernating animals?” and “Why is a slow heart
rate important for hibernating animals?”
 Call on a couple of students
  If the answer is not arrived upon tell students that animals rest or hibernate and their heart
rates slow down to conserve energy and survive winter with no or little food
 Tell students to get out their interactive science notebooks
 Tell students to cut and paste the handout “Animals that Migrate vs. Hibernate” on the
left side of their notebook
 Tell students to underline the important/key words in the migration definition with a blue
color pencil/crayon and to underline the important/key words in the hibernation definition
in a read color pencil/crayon
 Pass out the handout “The World” and tells students to cut and paste this on the left side
of the notebook (tell students that they most likely will have to turn it to the side to make
it fit)
 Tell students that they are now going to go onto google ocean and look for different
animals in the ocean
 Tell students to click one of the tags under the folder Animal Migration
 The tag will take them to an animal and animal facts
 Tell students to then click on the link named “Where I Went” because this will show
where the animals has migrated
 Demonstrate this on an overhead/ smart board by clicking on the first tag in the folder
 Tell students to make a key next to the map of different animals found and then draw that
animals migration using the different colors from the key
 Allow 8-10 minutes for this
 Ask the students, “What were some animals found and where did they migrate?”
 Call on a couple of students and have students come up and show this on the projector
and clear map
 Ask the class to write in their journal on the left side of the page the answer to the
following questions, “Which animal had the longest migration?, “Where did you find the
that animal?, Where did that animal start its migration?”
Closure:
 Tell students chose one animal that has not been talked about in class so far
  Tell students to research the animal online or the books around the class to see whether
they migrate or hibernate during the winter
 Tell students that they are going to write a little paragraph describing the chosen animals
winter survival
 Give 10 minutes for this

Homework: None
Assessment:
Formative:
 Write students answers on the board while making sure that they are within an
appropriate range
 Ask students the aforementioned questions after the book is read to the class, making sure
the response are appropriate and in relation in the book’s content
 Listen to students share their ideas about what we and animals do to prepare for winter;
making sure their descriptions are pertaining to winter survival
 Walk around while students are using google earth watching for students staying on
tasks, following directions with the map, and recording their findings
Summative:
 Review the interactive notebook. If the students have highlighted/underline the important
words in the migration and hibernation descriptions and correctly created a key and
charted the animals migration and put in good effort the assingment give them a check +.
If all the information is there by there was not the extra effort put into the notebook, give
a check and if there is a lack of connection with the content and effort make a note of this
and give the assignment a check -.

References:

Bancroft, Henrietta & Davie, Helen (Ill.). (1996). Animals in Winter. New York: HarperCollins.

Virginia Department of Education. Enhanced Scope and Sequence: Science, 3rd Grade. Retrieved
April 17, 2011 from
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/index.shtml