Invite your class to wear their pajamas to school for the first day of learning about hibernation. Discuss what it might feel like to sleep for a very long time. Explain the basics of hibernation and give multiple examples of animals that hibernate.
Give your students magazines, scissors, construction paper and glue and ask them to cut out pictures of animals that hibernate. Have them glue the pictures onto a sheet of construction paper as a collage.
Ask your students to write three to five sentences from the perspective of a hibernating animal. For example, if the students are pretending to be bears, they could write about what they do during hibernation or how they feel about hibernating.
Measure each student's heart rate and breaths per minute while they are resting and then after a brief period of activity. Use a stop watch to time a minute as students take turns counting their breaths and their pulse beats. Write the results for each student on the board. Discuss how activity changes your respiration and heart rate. Talk about how deep sleep lowers hibernating animals' respiration and heart rate.
Teach the class a poem or a song about hibernation. Have them perform their song or poem for another class or for their parents.