đģ Weather & Animals â How Animals Respond đĻ
Kindergarten Earth & Space Science â Unit 1: Weather & Seasons
đ Grade: Kindergartenđ§ Unit: K-ESS2 Unit 1 â Weather & Seasonsđĸ Lesson: 5 of 6âąī¸ Duration: 30â45 minutes
đģ đĻ đŋī¸ đ
Animals can't put on a coat â but they have amazing ways to survive winter!
đ NGSS Standards: K-ESS2-1 â Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time. K-ESS2-2 â Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs. (Applies specifically to food caching and nest/lodge building.)
đ¯ Learning Objective
Students will describe at least 3 ways animals adapt their behaviors to seasonal weather changes.
đŦ The Big Idea
Animals cannot control the weather â so they've developed amazing adaptations (special behaviors and body features) that help them survive changing seasons. Some move to warmer places, some sleep through winter, some store food, and some change their appearance!
đž Four Animal Weather Response Picture Cards
These are the picture cards for the lesson. You can point to them on the page or print the lesson and cut them apart for a matching activity.
đĻ
1. Migration â Move Away!
Some birds and animals travel (migrate) to warmer places when winter comes. They return in spring when food is available again.
Examples: Geese fly south in fall, monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles to Mexico, gray whales swim south along the Pacific coast.
đģ
2. Hibernation â Sleep It Off!
Some animals eat lots of food all fall to build up fat, then sleep through most of winter. Their heart rate and breathing slow way down to save energy.
Examples: Bears, groundhogs, and some bats hibernate. Bears wake up in spring when it gets warmer.
đŋī¸
3. Food Storage â Plan Ahead!
Some animals spend fall gathering and hiding food so they have enough to eat during winter when food is scarce.
Examples: Squirrels bury acorns and nuts. Some birds cache (hide) seeds. Beavers store branches underwater near their lodge.
đ
4. Changing Appearance â Blend In!
Some animals change color with the seasons to stay camouflaged (hidden from predators) in both summer and winter environments.
Examples: Snowshoe hares are brown in summer (blends with soil) and turn white in winter (blends with snow). Arctic foxes do the same!
Printed animal weather response picture cards from this lesson
Scissors if you want to cut the picture cards apart
Paper and crayons
đŦ Let's Get Started
Step 1 â Introduce the 4 Picture Cards (5 min)
Use the four picture cards printed in this lesson. Point to each card and say the animal response out loud together. Ask:
"If it's getting very cold, which of these would YOU want to do?"
"Which animal has the coolest adaptation? Why?"
Step 2 â Move Like the Animals (8 min)
Turn this into a movement game instead of just talking.
When you say migration, students flap and move to the "warm place" in the room.
When you say hibernation, students curl up and pretend to sleep.
When you say food storage, students pretend to gather and hide food.
When you say changing appearance, students crouch and pretend to hide in snow or grass.
After each action, hold up the matching picture card again.
Step 3 â Snowshoe Hare Picture Sort (5 min)
Use the provided hare boxes on the worksheet. Students color the summer hare brown and the winter hare white, then say why the colors help the hare hide.
Step 4 â Match the Animal to the Response (10 min)
Complete the worksheet on the next page. Students match each animal to its weather response strategy, then point back to the four picture cards to check their thinking.
Step 5 â Human Adaptations Discussion (5 min)
Ask: "What do YOU do to adapt to different weather?"
Cold weather â wear coats, stay inside, turn on heat
Hot weather â wear less clothing, use air conditioning, swim
Rain â use an umbrella, wear rain boots
"Humans are actually really good at changing our ENVIRONMENT instead of our bodies!"
đŦ Discussion Questions
đŖī¸ Talk about these together:
Which animal adaptation do you think is the most amazing? Why?
Do YOU migrate, hibernate, or store food for winter? What do you do instead?
Why can't a squirrel just go to a store and buy food in winter like we do?
Big Question: Humans use houses, clothes, and heaters to adapt to weather. What would you do if you had to survive winter like a wild animal â no house, no clothes?
đĄ Suggested answer: Good creative thinking exercise! They'd need to: find or build shelter (cave, burrow, or pile of leaves), build up fat or find very warm fur, cache food ahead of time, or migrate south. Humans are actually quite vulnerable without our technology â we've outsourced our survival to tools and clothing! Our "adaptation" is our big brain and our ability to build and use tools.
đ Extensions
đĻ Migration Tracker: Look up a migration route on a map â where do Canada geese fly from/to? How far is that?
đŋī¸ Squirrel Watch: If squirrels live nearby, watch them in fall. Can you spot them burying nuts?
đĄī¸ Hibernation Math: Bears hibernate about 5â7 months. How many months is that? Point to those months on a calendar!
đ Act It Out Again: Re-play the movement game with faster calls so students have to choose the correct animal response quickly.
đŠâđĢ Parent/Teacher Notes
Hibernation clarification: True hibernation (very deep sleep, very slow heart rate) includes groundhogs and some bats. Bears actually enter "torpor" â a lighter form of sleep where they can wake up more easily. Both are valid strategies for the purposes of this lesson.
K-ESS2-2 connection: This standard is specifically about how animals (and plants) change their environment to meet their needs. Animals building nests, dams, or burrows fit this standard directly. Migration and camouflage are behavioral/physiological adaptations, not environmental modification â K-ESS2-1 covers those. Food caching and lodge-building (beaver) fit K-ESS2-2 well.
The snowshoe hare: The color change is triggered by changes in day length (photoperiod), not temperature! That's a fascinating connection to make for older/advanced learners.
Assessment: Can the child name and describe at least 3 animal responses to seasonal weather? Can they match at least 5 of 8 animals to the correct strategy and explain one response out loud?
Child can name and describe at least 3 animal adaptations to seasonal change
Child matches at least 6 of 8 animals correctly
Snowshoe hare drawings show brown fur in summer and white fur in winter
Child can explain (in simple terms) WHY the adaptation helps the animal survive
Š 2026 Little Lab Coats. For personal, non-commercial use only. Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, or resale is prohibited. Printed copies are for use within your immediate household only.
