This is such a busy week in my classroom! We celebrate Chinese New Year, and Groundhog Day!
I LOVE Groundhog Day! The kids take on my enthusiasm for this weird holiday and we have FUN! For me, Groundhog Day begins on February first. We take a part of our whole group time to discuss what Groundhog Day means, and we make our own predictions about what we think or hope will happen. We make a class graph of names of who thinks the groundhog will see his shadow, and who thinks the groundhog will NOT see his shadow. We count and compare our predictions and leave them visible for the next day.
On Groundhog Day we watch the footage from Punxsutawney that morning and we see who predicted correctly and who didn’t. We also count the 6 weeks (if needed) and mark our calendar for when Spring should begin.
I have 2 books that I read to the class.
“Groundhog Day” By Betsy Lewin
Robin Hill School “Groundhog Day” By Margaret McNamara (both from Scholastic)
For Centers I use my Groundhog Day Lesson Plan. I have all the printouts for the previous day’s graphs, an emergent reader to color, a letter match game, a number game, a groundhog craft and MORE!
Click on the link below…it’s AWESOME and honestly, it will make your planning SO much easier!
My favorite part of the day is our Groundhog Craft. It is so cute and so much fun. It is another craft the kids will PLAY with during our center time…they even take their groundhogs out to the playground at recess. I have photos of the supplies needed and the finished products. Templates and instructions are included in my lesson plan. This is one of the best crafts I do with my class all year!
