Groundhog Day is coming up, so I'm sharing some of my
favorite FREE activities!
First, here are some of the best Groundhog Day books I've found (affiliate links provided for your convenience):
Substitute Groundhog: This is a great book for teaching compare/contrast! Groundhog is sick and interviewing other animals for his job, but only one meets the necessary criteria!
Go To Sleep, Groundhog!: This is one of my faves - Groundhog can't sleep so he keeps waking up and experiencing different holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you teach time, note that the clock has hands that point to months rather than hours!
Groundhog's Runaway Shadow: This is a brand new book (published Dec 2016), but I absolutely LOVE the illustrations, so I ordered it already! Groundhog and his shadow have grown apart, so Shadow goes off to have his own adventures. Soon though, Phil misses him - will they be reunited in time for Groundhog Day?
Groundhog Stays Up Late: Groundhog doesn't want to prepare for winter, and when the other animals start to hibernate he stays up to play in the snow! He soon becomes hungry though and tricks the other animals into waking up early to share a Spring Feast with him. They realize that he tricked them and trick him into thinking there will be 6 more weeks of winter so that he sleeps through Spring! Great book for teaching about hibernation!
Ten Grouchy Groundhogs: This is a rhyming, counting and alliterative book, so its perfect for so many lessons! Focus on adjectives with giggly, grouchy, graceful, grubby and glitzy groundhogs, or read it during Math for a great -1 subtraction lesson!
Groundhog's Dilemma: This one is great for a lesson on being truthful. Groundhog takes bribes from the other animals, promising to predict either more winter or early spring based on their preference. When Groundhog Day rolls around he must tell the truth and make amends.
Groundhog Day: This is a Level 1 reader, perfect for kinders. It has basic facts about Groundhog Day in simple sentences.
Grumpy Groundhog: This groundhog is sleepy and doesn't want to get out of bed to make his prediction. This one has fun illustrations and rhyming text. The children in the story come up with different ways to get Groundhog to come out - which would be a wonderful writing prompt!
Groundhog Weather School: This one is great for teaching about speech bubbles in illustrations, as much of the book is written in this format. I love the illustrations and there are lots of facts packed into the fun!
Groundhog's Day Off: This is another book where Groundhog decides to take time off and other animals try to fill his shoes. This is great for teaching children appreciation - maybe combine it with writing thank you notes to school staff?
Groundhog Gets a Say - If you have students write reports about different animals, this book would be great as it contains a ton of facts about groundhogs.
Kids Explore! Groundhogs: If you have Kindles in your classroom, you can get this book for free on Kindle Unlimited! Its a non-fiction story with great photos, but is a bit wordy - I would recommend reading aloud only a few pages at a time and discussing the facts and vocabulary.
Groundhog Day: Another non-fiction book with simple text and great photographs!
Now on to the activities! I keep my plans short and sweet for Groundhog Day, as it's usually right around our 100th Day of school so I only devote about two days to it - and that's all it really needs lol!
First FREEBIE: Ground Hog Day Roll & Cover Game:
My students LOVE Roll & Cover games, so I make them for every theme we do! I'm sure your students will enjoy these games at Math Centers or in Early Finisher tubs too - they can play in pairs or even solo!
Of course Groundhog Day lends itself to prediction graphs! My advice is to do the graph the day before - otherwise you run the risk of someone hearing the report on the radio on the way to school! Click the picture to download all of the pieces to make this class graph for free!
And finally, a simple Groundhog Day Crown, modeled by my 3 year old, Sullivan! My students love crowns, and this is a quick craft that is a great conversation starter to get them talking about what they did at school with their parents! Just click on the picture to download it for free!
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