1-2-3 Come Do Some Groundhog Day Activities With Me

Do you read ”Who Will See Their Shadow This Year?” by Jerry Pallotta?
It’s one of my students’ favorite Groundhog Day stories and perfect for practicing the “sequencing and retelling a story” standards. 

With that in mind, I designed this quick, easy and fun ”Who Will See Their Shadow?” “slider” craftivity, which will help your students retell the story in chronological order.   

The gist: A variety of animals are sick of winter and anxious for spring. Since the groundhog is sleeping, they wonder if they can make it come sooner by seeing their shadows. 

Each one takes a turn, causing all kinds of weather from a hurricane to a tornado, which makes this a great story to review all kinds of weather with your kiddos as well.

There are 3 outside slider options to choose from. Pick your favorite or give children a choice.

There are also 2 slider strip options: one with just the animal graphics, and the other with the animals and their weather word.

For example, when the chicken saw her shadow it rained; when the polar bear saw his shadow there was a blizzard.

Students color the animals on the “slider strip” then cut and glue it together.

As they pull on the end of the “slider-strip” the various animal characters go through the “window”, so that children can take turns retelling the story to a partner or reading buddy, then take their craftivity home to share with their family, once again practicing these standards.

Even if you don't have time for everyone to make a slider, make one for yourself, as it's a great tool for reviewing a story.

I introduce the lesson by reading the book ”Who Will See Their Shadow?”, then share my completed "slider craft” with my students.

So that you can quickly, and easily make an example, I’ve included full-color patterns.

After I read the story, we retell the tale together, using the picture prompts on my slider.
I have them guess which animal character they think comes next, before I pull the picture through the “window”.

My students now know what’s expected of them, and are very excited to transition to making a “Shadow” storytelling slider of their own.

Storytelling sliders are also an easy & interesting way to assess comprehension.

I’ve included a “Let’s sequence the story” activity for this, where students color and trim the picture “windows” then glue them in the correct order on their worksheet.

There’s also a, “Here’s What Happened…” writing prompt worksheet, (BW & color) as another way to check comprehension, plus practice sequential writing, hopefully using a variety of ordinal numbers and other transitions. 

Today's featured FREEBIE also has a Groundhog theme.

Click the link for the quick, easy & fun "Fickle Phil" Groundhog Day lunch bag craft. 

Well that's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hear the snowplows zipping up and down the roads, sure wouldn't want that "way too early" morning job. 

Wishing you a prosperous day. 

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." -Unknown

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1-2-3 Come Do Some Groundhog Activities With Me

1-2-3 Come Do Some Groundhog Activities With Me

I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that today is February 1st.  Is your life flying by you like mine?  Groundhog Day falls on a Sunday this year, so I'm hopefully not too last-minute to help you find some things to add to your lessons on Monday. 

Groundhog Day was one of my Y5's favorite units, so I have an assortment of FREEBIES on the shopping cart for you. Click on the link to view the groundhog offerings.

Since so many visitors have requested the pentagon, hexagon and octagon shapes, I’ve included them in all of the new shape books that I design, and am in the process of adding those pages to the oldies when time permits.  I just finished revamping The Shape of My Shadow.  It’s a complete re-do as I now have a dotted-trace-the-letter font!

I just wish I had time to re-do everything, as the quality is so much better now,  but since I design 2-3 new things a day, write a blog and cram so much other "stuff" in, re-doing things is beyond being on the back burner.

One thing you can do to incorporate the new shapes when they aren’t in the older booklets, is to ask your students what shapes are missing, and have them design their own page(s).

To cover more standands with the easy readers, I now have students circle the capital letters and write in the end punctuation. 

I also include at least one graphing activity, to hit a few more standards.  This booklet has two.

To cover even more standards, when everyone has completed their booklet, read it aloud as a whole group, so you can review concepts of print, proper spacing, reading from left to right etc.  Click on the link to view/download The Shapes Of My Shadow.

The ever-popular 10-frame counting booklets have also been up-dated. Click on the link to view/download the one for groundhogs. 1-2-3 Count Groundhogs With Me

1. Students read, trace and write the number and number word. 
2. They see a number of groundhogs in a sentence and say it. 
3. They spy the number in a sequence and circle it.
4. They X-out that many boxes or use a bingo dot marker or stamp in the 10 frame. ( I encourage my students to make a color pattern.)
5. Plus cut and glue the set/group to the matching numbered box.

The packet includes:

• 53 number and word wall word flashcards, including number cards that count to 20.
• Covers for the flashcards to make Itty Bitty Books
• A + one more math skill sheet
• 1 graphing extension &  a certificate of praise.

I Spy A Number is another groundhog math booklet. It's a great way to reinforce counting, numbers and number words. The last page provides some writing extensions.  Students read the simple sentence and include end punctuation.

They trace the number and number words and then write them, as well as circle that number in the sequence, count that many objects and color them if they want to.

This Groundhog packet includes:

• The Easy Reader My I Spy A Number Groundhog booklet.
• Traceable skill sheets for counting to 50, 100 and 120.
• 2 number card sets from 1-20 featuring 2 different groundhogs, so students can sequence and play Memory Match or "Speed" games with a partner + a certificate of praise

Finally, I revamped the easy reader: My Groundhog Day Booklet.   Students trace and write the main idea word, circle the capital letters, add end punctuation and then cut and glue the picture to the matching numbered box in their booklet. 

There are two pages to choose from to include in the "results" portion. 

One is if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, the other is if he did not.  Students then write about how this prediction makes them feel. 

Two graphing extensions are also included. Click on the link to view/download the Groundhog Day Easy Reader packet.

If you missed yesterdays' article, and are looking for a few more Groundhog Day activities, scroll down. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

"Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."