For this art project, children will discover and create a home for the hibernating animals of the forest. On a place mat, knead some coffee grounds into play-dough to give it some texture. Use a yogurt container as a cave for a hibernating animal and add the play-dough as soil, some toilet paper rolls for logs, plastic flowers, twigs, and leaves around the yogurt container/cave, carefully gluing them in place. Add seeds or nuts for food in the cave and have the children place small plastic animals into the caves. Explain how animals hibernate to conserve energy when food may not exist in the winter.
Since school typically starts in the fall, start talking about different types of animals and where they go in the winter. Have the children bring to class a large box measuring about two feet square. Using tempera paint, cover the entire box making it brown and gray. After the paint has dried, glue actual leaves, twigs and blades of grass onto the outside of the box. The box now serves as a "bear cave" where bears can go to sleep for the winter. Leave the box in the dynamic play area all winter to remind the children about hibernation.
This art project uses a regular size brown paper grocery bag, a piece of flat cardboard, some paint, cotton batting, some rocks, and a stuffed animal. Cut off about three to five inches of the top of the grocery bag and crumple it up. Next, un-crumple the paper and glue one side to the flat cardboard base, leaving the open part of the bag open to one side. Paint the outside of the bag gray and brown to look like rock. Add real rocks and cotton batting for snow. Place a stuffed animal in the cave, covering it with a piece of the bag. Leave it on display until spring when the hibernating stuffed animal wakes up and the preschoolers celebrate with a party.
This art idea only requires some brown construction paper, crayons and connecting brads. Children may tear pieces of brown construction paper into the main body shape and head of a bear. Tear the shapes of legs and arms next. Work closely with several children at a time helping them to tear the brown paper. Use the brads to connect the arms and legs to the body. Children may then color the bear as they desire. Instruct the children to take their bears home and hide them in a dark place. In the spring, send a note home reminding the children to awaken their hibernating bears and bring them back to school.