Groundhog’s Day for Kids
Learn about Groundhog’s Day and Make your Own Groundhog
Take a break from thinking about winter and celebrate Groundhog's Day with a small craft project sure to lighten winter's doldrums.
Ground Hog sleeps \ All winter \ Snug in his fur, \ Dreams \ Green dreams of \ of grassy shoots, \ ... \ What’s there! \ Oh no. \ His shadow. Oh.\ How sad! \ Six more \ Wintry \ Weeks \ To go. by Lillian Moore (from her poem Ground Hog Day).
Use Groundhog’s Day to create a diversion for children during the worst stages of cabin fever. Celebrate Groundhog’s Day and remind them that spring will come again. Remind your children that they are not the only ones to think that winter seems to last forever - tell them about how Groundhog’s Day started as a way to celebrate the coming of spring when the winter seems too long.
Why Do People Look for the Groundhog’s Shadow?
People look for the Groundhog’s shadow on February 2 to see how much longer before the weather warms and it turns to spring. It seems like a silly celebration but the idea goes back over 1500 years. Winter is long and dark and people got tired of waiting for spring, so they began to have festivals to celebrate the coming of spring. They cleaned their houses to get rid of the dirty old year and to prepare for a brand new year. They lit candles to symbolize the coming of more sunlight.
To help them figure out how much longer they would have to wait, they would watch the hibernating animals. In Europe they watched animals like bears, badgers, or hedgehogs. When the animal woke up from its sleep, they would watch it to see if it saw its shadow. According to legend, if the animal saw its shadow winter would last for several more weeks. If there was no shadow, spring was on the way.
When Europeans moved to America, they found lots of groundhogs. Because groundhogs hibernate, they were an ideal candidate to use as weather forecasters. In 1886, the role of the groundhogs as weather forecasters became official when Clymer Freas, a newspaper reporter, wrote that February 2, was Groundhog Day.
Make your Own Punxsutawney Phil
Supplies
- disposable cup or an empty yogurt container (one with straight sides)
- markers
- popsicle stick or dowel
- brown foam, construction paper, or a paper bag
- google eyes
- white glue
- flashlight
Instructions
- Remove the bottom from the cup.
- Let the children decorate it like the earth by coloring it brown (dirt) or green (for grass). This will be the groundhog's hole.
- Cut out two groundhogs from foam (use Fig. # as a pattern: reduce or enlarge as desired).
- Let the children color their groundhogs and glue on google eyes.
- Glue one groundhog to each side of the stick.
- When the glue is dry, poke the groundhog up through his hole. Hand the children a flashlight, turn out the lights and let them stage their own weather predictions.
