Get ready for winter: these dormice are getting ready for a long winter sleep. They eat a lot of food. The food helps them survive, or live, through the winter.

Good Night, Sleep Tight!

Can you find the dormouse sleeping in the hill?

The dormouse can sleep for six months during the winter. That long sleep is called hibernation (high-ber-NAY-shun). During hibernation, an animal's body temperature drops, and its heart rate slows.

Some animals go into such a deep sleep that they cannot be wakened. Others wake for a short time to look for food. Then they quickly fall back to sleep. Hibernating animals wake in the spring, when the weather is warm. They look for food.

How Does a Dormouse Get Ready for the Winter?

Eats a Lot

It stores food so it can survive without eating.

Gets Ready for Bed

It gathers grass and leaves to make a nest.

Hibernates

It curls up and sleeps in its nest. When will it wake?

Think About It: Besides the dormouse, what animals hibernate in the winter?

Winter Ways

Some animals get ready for the winter in other ways. Those ways help them survive the cold.

Arctic Fox--Adapt

Some animals adapt to the cold. Their fur changes color to blend in with the snow.

Frog--Hide

Some animals hide under rocks, leaves, or mud. Sometimes they stay inside logs to keep warm.

Ladybugs--Diapause

Some insects hibernate. When insects hibernate, it is called diapause. During that time they do not grow.

Get Ready for Winter

In some places, the weather is getting colder, and some of nature's creatures are getting ready for the change. This issue follows the activities of the dormouse, one of nature's true hibernators, as it prepares for the winter. The issue also highlights some ways other animals get ready for the winter. We hope your students enjoy reading about how some animals survive the cold weather.

Before You Read

Ask: Why might some animals be busy in the fall? Why might animals need to prepare for the winter? What do you do differently in the winter?

Vocabulary

adapt--to adjust to the environment

consider--to think about something

diapause--a state of paused growth while asleep

hibernation--a long sleep during which an animal's body

temperature drops and its heart rate slows

migrate--to go to warm places before the cold winter begins

survive--to live

Fun Facts to Share

* Brown and black bears are light sleepers in the winter. They eat between naps.

* Polar bears do not hibernate. They stay active all year.

* Polar bears live in dens during the colder months in the Arctic, from October to April. Female polar bears give birth in the dens.

Read and Share Aloud

* Estivation is another type of dormant sleep that some animals undergo. It is the opposite of hibernation; some animals, such as lizards and snakes, survive hot, dry periods by finding a cool place to sleep.

* Some frogs hide underwater. Their skin absorbs oxygen from the water. That helps them breathe.

* Migrating birds travel in flocks. They use the sun and the stars to find their way back home in the spring. They are able to migrate to the same warm place again the following fall.

* Some chipmunks wake during hibernation to eat some of the food they gathered in the fall.

* Animals that adapt to the cold weather change their eating patterns. They eat only the little food that is available during the winter. They also eat less often.

* If blood is taken from a hibernating animal and injected into an active animal in the spring, the active animal goes into hibernation. A substance in the hibernating animal's blood, called hibernation inducement trigger (HIT), causes that behavior.

Extend the Lesson

Creating a chart: Ask students to draw animal pictures or cut them out of a magazine. Encourage each student to make his or her own chart on colored construction paper. Students should start by writing these column headings: hibernation, adaptation, hiding, diapause, and migration. Invite students to paste their pictures under the correct column headings and to write a sentence or two explaining how each animal prepares for the winter.

Practicing phonics: Ask students to find and circle all the words in the student edition that have double vowels (for example, food, sleep, and dormouse). Talk about the different sounds they make.

ELL Tip

Enhancing memory: Play 20 questions with the class. Have one student think of an object, an animal, or an action from the issue. Allow other students to ask yes-no questions while trying to guess correctly. Repeat the game, allowing other students to lead.

Literature Links

* Animals That Hibernate, by Larry Dane Brimner

* Bear Wants More, by Karma Wilson

* Time to Sleep, by Denise Fleming

* What Is Migration? by John Crossingham and Bobbie Kalman

Weekly Reader Web Watch

* Visit www.weeklyreader.com/links for more information about how animals prepare for winter.

* Visit www.weeklyreader.com/teachers/grade2 for a reproducible page students can use to compare animal habits with human habits in the winter. This month's skills calendar reinforces math concepts.