A few years ago, one of my students asked me, "Why does the groundhog see his shadow only sometimes?" It was the perfect teachable moment, so I dropped my plans and did this little activity. Every student made their own little groundhog using paper. Then we asked our question, made predictions/hypothesis, and went over our plan. We taped it to a popsicle stick. It happened to be a sunny day in February so it was perfect! We went outside and tried to find our groundhog's shadow. Then we went in the shade and did the same.
This led to a lot of great discussion. Of course several first graders already knew how to make a shadow, BUT it was the perfect way to practice the scientific method.
During my lunch, I whipped this up:
(I had this format on my computer already from other experiments, so it didn't take long!)
Since then, I've fixed it up. That was 2010 or 11 (before I could get my hands on adorable clip art and fonts). You can get this investigation for free here:
To see more groundhog activities, visit my blog:
Megan Wheeler from Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade also has some fabulous activities for Groundhog Day. You can check them out here.
This mini-book is adorable!
I'd love to hear about your favorite activity for Groundhog Day. Leave us a comment telling us what you like to do!
Don't forget about our freebie linky going on right now!
Click on the picture to get there.
This is GREAT!! Thanks, Sarah! I'm actually doing Groundhog stuff tomorrow.....this is perfect! Thanks!
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Thanks Brenda! I'm so glad you'll be able to use it. They have a lot of fun with it! Enjoy!
DeleteI love your groundhog investigation. I actually used your original version with my class 2 years ago. We submitted it our school science fair as our class project. The kids loved it and I was thrilled it allowed us to work through the scientific process effortlessly. I gathered our data sheets into a notebook and we made a display on the 3 section science board reflecting each step of our investigation. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome!! I'm so happy to hear that you used it and took it even further. I love the science board idea. What a great way to display this activity. Thank you for your comment! You made my day:)
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