Groundhog Day Activity Ideas

Seasons don't mean much to my California kids ("Why do people say 'oh no?' when there is six more weeks of winter?" my son asked me last year. To him, "winter" means an occasional light rain storm and temperatures dropping to the mid-60s.) Still, we always love the chance to celebrate another holiday, so we are looking forward to Groundhog Day this year. Here are a few things we did last year to make this holiday extra fun.

For a craft, we made these pop-up groundhog puppets. Then, we printed out some additional pictures of groundhogs that we taped to craft sticks and put in the backyard. I squished the sticks between some of our bricks and we periodically went outside during the day to trace the shadows with sidewalk chalk and see how they changed. I made this simple chart that I put on a clipboard for us to write down our observations. My kids liked having this chart and clipboard to feel like official scientists.

(Click on image above to go to the PDF document)

For a snack time, I made these groundhog snacks with chocolate pudding, oreos, and vanilla wafers. (But, alas, my kids didn't care for my creativity... they just wanted to eat plain Oreos. . .) We also watched some videos on YouTube about groundhogs, we sang a few rhymes about groundhogs, and I made a simple groundhog and hill out of felt fabric that I used to tell my kids the legend of groundhogs with a flannel board.


We read a few books that we had checked out from the library, and my kids' favorite was Wake Up, Groundhog! by Susanna Leonard Hill and Jeffrey Ebbeler.  (This book has also been published under the title Punxsutawney Phyllis). It is a cute story about a girl groundhog who wants to be "Punxutawney Phil" and she proves she can do the job one year when she notices the signs that spring is in the air.

Don't forget to also check out our Groundhog Day post from last year. And for more ideas that I have rounded up for this holiday, go check out my Groundhog Day Pinterest Board!

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