Groundhog Day 2017

~Groundhog Day~

Happy Groundhog Day 2017! Lydia and I did a lot of fun groundhog day activities with the kids. A lot of these are from previous years. As always, I'll highlight links to the templates/printables in red throughout the post.

Connor and Shaila love this video. It's from Punxtawney Phil's perspective and explains what Groundhog Day is.

 First we did a Happy Groundhog Day coloring page.

 Brandan absolutely LOVES preschool. He did an awesome job on this Groundhog Shadow Matching Game. There is a page with nine shadows on it, and I cut out the corresponding groundhogs for Brandan to match.

 

Next I cut out some blue rectangles out of construction paper and had them paste some green construction paper on top of that. Then the kids cut the top of the green construction paper into little strips so that it looked like grass. They colored this groundhog template and pasted it and cotton balls onto the paper. Very simple, but they had a lot of fun with it!

 Brandan's favorite craft was our toilet paper roll groundhog. All you need for this craft is this template and a gluestick or some tape.

Phil did see his shadow, so we settled in for our 'six more weeks of winter' by finishing off with an Addition and Subtraction Color By Number and some hot chocolate!

Click here to see last year's Groundhog Day post

Happy Groundhog Day 2016! (Siobhan)

~Happy Groundhog Day~

Happy Groundhog Day everyone! I know this post is a little late, but hopefully it will give you some craft ideas for next year :) 

 Groundhog Day was a 'balmy' 50 degrees, so we decided to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. It seemed like the groundhog's prediction was correct; this year he did not see his shadow!

((Today it seemed liked his prediction was wrong; it was a freezing cold realfeel of -35 degrees!!))

 Little Lux loves going to a little loop that is just up our road. He runs around it with the boys.

When we got home we had some hot chocolate to warm up. Later we did some Groundhog Day activities.

We watched this cute Groundhog's Day video, which is filmed from the perspective of Punxsutawney Phil himself!

Next we did some coloring pages...

 Click here to print this Happy Groundhog Day coloring page

 Next Tert and Filia did a color by number page. It involved addition and subtraction, so it was too challenging for Filia, but it was perfect for Tert. He worked with her on each of the colors and really enjoyed it!

Click here to print out this Addition and Subtraction Color by Number

Tert, Filia and Lux loved this Groundhog Day toilet paper roll craft. It was very simple, but a lot of fun! All you need for the craft is this template (I recommend printing it out on cardstock) as well as a glutestick and a toilet paper roll.

 The last activity we did was a science experiment. First we talked about the scientific method. Then we used this activity page to record a hypothesis about why the groundhog sees his shadow. Then we turned the lights off and used a flashlight and our groundhogs to make some observations about shadows. Finally, we made a conclusion about the shadow experiments.

Happy Groundhog Day!
Click here to see last year's Groundhog Day post

Happy Groundhog's Day 2015!

Happy Groundhog Day!

It's Groundhog Day 2015, and I thought that I would share some pictures of some crafts and activities that I did with Tert (1st Grade) and Filia (Preschool) today. 

First, we went online and checked out the video put up by the Washington Post to see if Punxsutawney Phil (the world's most famous groundhog!) saw his shadow.

Click here to see the Groundhog Day 2015 video.

(Turns out, Phil did see his shadow, which means that we have to settle in for another 6 weeks of winter. This didn't come as much of a surprise, as we've gotten over two feet of snow in less than a week. :-/)

We looked at some fast facts on Phil. It turns out he is spoiled rotten with a heated burrow and is fed dog food and ice cream before his big day.

I went online and found some great preschool activities for the kids. Enchanted Learning has some awesome printables. I put links throughout this post to the worksheets I used, but if you google 'Groundhog Day Preschool Worksheets' you will find a lot more.

Happy Groundhog Day! coloring pages (Click here to print it out)

I found this Winter/Spring worksheet on a Kindergarten blog. (Click here to print it out.)

 Next we did an adorable Groundhog Day Craft. It was very simple but Tert and Filia loved it! This blog has a better tutorial, but hopefully mine will help you get an idea of how it works...

2 Blue Construction Paper Circles

1 Green Construction Paper Circle, cut in half

2 Groundhogs (Click here for a groundhog template) and 1 groundhog shadow

1 glue stick

1 pair scissors
Cotton Balls

Crayons

Permanent Marker

Cut out your circles so that you have 2 blue circles and 2 green semicircles.  

(I forgot to get a picture of this part, but you also have take 1 of your blue circles and write on the top of it 'Spring is Coming Soon.' Then flip the bottom of it up and write 'Six More Weeks of Winter.' The picture above from the original tutorial might make better sense.)

 Glue your green semicircles onto your blue circles.

Your two blue/green circles should look like this. Next, take your Spring/Winter Circle and glue it to the circle with no writing.

Glue cotton balls to the sky to make clouds.

Decorate the Spring side. Glue one of your groundhogs onto the grass.

Now glue the Spring/Winter circle on top of the circle with no writing.

(I also added some tape so it would be extra secure)

Decorate the winter side with cotton balls. Glue the groundhog and its shadow onto it.

You're done!

 Spring is coming soon! :D

 Six more weeks of winter. :(

 Since we have to settle in for six more weeks of winter, we decided to settle in with some cups of hot cocoa. 

 Happy Groundhog's Day 2015!