Raise your hand if you are tired of snow and cold weather. Luckily, here in Colorado it hasn’t been too bad this year. That doesn’t mean I’m not up for a little more sunshine and few more park days. Groundhog day is here and we will find out if spring is upon us or we will have six more weeks of frigid weather. Brrr…
Image courtesy of phrawr at flickr.com (scaled and text added)
Groundhog day is a holiday that is celebrated each year on February 2nd. It began in the United States around 1887. According to legend, if it is cloudy when the groundhog peeks out then spring is upon us. If he sees his shadow, winter weather will stick around for six more weeks. This holiday was originally promoted by Clymer H. Freas, the editor at Punxatawney Press. The town of Punxatawney still celebrates this holiday in a grand way. It receives wide spread media coverage and the weather telling groundhog, Punxatawney Phil is something of a celebrity. What are you hoping for on this glorious day?
We read Fluffy Meets The Groundhog by Kate McMullan and Groundhog Day by Betsy Lewin to celebrate this fun tradition. Both of these books are adorable and held the attention of my eight-year-old. Fluffy Meets The Groundhog is her favorite. It is an adorable story about Fluffy the classroom Guinea pig. Fluffy and the children of Ms. Day’s class are excited and eager to learn about the legend of Groundhog Day. They are learning the traditions, reading poems and even writing a poem of their own. They have even decided to dub their holiday, “ground pig day”, in honor of their adorable class pets. The children decide to take Fluffy and the other guinea pigs out to recess since the weather is so beautiful. Unfortunately, Fluffy gets away in the process. He makes a new friend and finds out just what a fun day “ground pig” day can be. Will the children find Fluffy? What will the groundhog see when he pops out of his hole? Pick up these adorable stories and see what happens.
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We decided to do some fun activities to go along with these stories. I hope you had as much fun with them as we did. You can download the printable here:
GroundhogDayActivities.pdf
These activities are best suited for K-3 but could be adapted for older students.
What is in your bookbag?
Image courtesy of phrawr at flickr.com (scaled, cropped and text added)
This is such a fun activity to do with the kids! I love the idea and it’s definitely something that the kids will enjoy. I’m ready to say goodbye to the cold winter!
Well, I finally know what Groundhog Day is all about! I’ve always wanted to know, don’t think I’ve ever got around to Google it! So thank you! I read about 2 -3 books a week and just finished one last night. Not sure what’s next yet.
I love in Alberta, Canada so we are used to having snow etc. Whatever the grounding shadows tells him, we just take it at face value.
Absolutely looks a fun activity! I wish I can experience snow here in Philippines doesn’t have a snow.
What a fun learning activity. I’m so ready for spring but we just got another 3 ft of snow!!