Happy Groundhog Day

Happy

One of my favorite movies. If you haven't seen it... you are missing out on something really funny!

Last night I waited for Miss Em's daddy to come home to participate in teaching her about Groundhog Day. Her daddy only gets to see the finished products of her schooling and her telling him of what she had learned. I thought it would be fun for her and him. Of course, I had to tell daddy to allow her to process and think about her work. He had a hard time not wanting to take over help, lol! She allowed him to help with the coloring but I was firm on letting her follow and complete the directions for herself. I believe that my kids will tend to stall long enough knowing that someone will start doing the work for them. Our boys are famous for that with their father :) When I first started teaching Miss Em I wanted things perfect and helped her alot...I realized real quick to let that go. This is her time to learn not mine. I am really bad when it comes to art projects. I am totally guilty of the "takeover". I just did it the other day when Hunter had to make something for Art. (We) made a really cute cool robot. Considering he came to me at 7 pm and started asking for random things for something that was due in 2 days. Now, Miss Em wants one and we will make one when she is doing her Letter R work. It will be a recycled robot like Hunter's and I will start collecting things for it now. I am envisioning a tutu :)

Last night I had Emily work on  really cute Groundhog preschool theme papers. You can print them free from the Blessed Beyond A Doubt website. Click HERE

She has other free printables too and I love them.

I read two books to her that I got at the library. They were adorable. 

Substitute Groundhog by Pat Miller

Google image

How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry

Google image

This was her crafts project.

I got the idea from here

I printed the groundhog from a Google image and had Miss Em color it. She colored the white paper plate too.  I folded the paper plate in half and cut a small slit with scissors before she colored it. I made the groundhog shadow from tracing the groundhog onto black paper and cut it out. I cut the sun out of yellow paper and I cut out a cloud for her too. We glued the shadow silhouette to the groundhog and then glued both pieces to the tip of the craft stick (a straw or a tree stick could be used). I folded the paper plate in half and stapled the paper plate together. I left a space on top wide enough for the groundhog to peek through. Miss Em glued the sun and the cloud to the back of each side of the paper plate. The poem is from a search for Groundhog poems...here. I typed it and cut it out with decorative scissors. Miss Em glued it to the front. After I took the the first pic I realized that I had an error and fixed it for the end result. The poem is read with the tune of "I'm A Little Teapot". Really cute. I then inserted the groundhog stick through the top and out of the hole on the bottom of the plate. Miss Em loved pulling the stick up and down allowing the groundhog to come up from his hole :)

Groundhog Poem

Here's a little groundhog furry and brown.

He's coming up to look around.

If he sees his shadow, down he'll go.

Then six more weeks of winter...OH NO!

I gave Miss Em a little information about groundhogs and Groundhog Day before we started her projects. Just basic info...age appropriate. I told her the date which is Feb 2.  I told her that it is tradition that when the groundhog pops up and sees his shadow then we will have 6 more weeks of winter...brrr...cold. If not, then Spring is on it's way. Yeah for flowers :) I told her that the sounds that they make is a whistle and I whistled. She whistled too. Groundhogs also hibernate like bears do. I asked if she remembered when we talked about animals that hibernate (sleeping for a very long time in the Winter cold). They eat a lot and fill up their bellies so that they can have a nice, long, winter warm nap.

She also loved her dot printable of the Groundhog too. So cute!

I usually have her use her dot markers but I gave her magnets. I put yellow dot stickers on them and used a baking sheet that I got at the Dollar Tree. She has to put the magnet on the circle and no white should be showing out of the circle. Good concentration here and motor skills.

She also identified the groundhog's body parts. Anything that needs to be cut and glued she is very happy about.

I got both of these printables from the 2 Teaching Mommies website. Print them for free HERE 

This morning I showed Miss Em a video of  Punxsutawney Phil coming out of his little tree house and that he did NOT see his shadow. Her reaction..."he's so cute". That's it.

Thanks for stopping by.