Groundhog Day Activity For Children

Reading Recommendation: "Bear Shadow" by Frank Asch, published by Prentice Hall. This is the classic story of the little bear who tries to escape his shadow. Might get the kids interested in reading his other terrific books too!

Science Activity: Give the kids a flashlight at night or in a darkened room and let them make shadows on the wall. They can work together to make the hand shapes look like animals or hold common objects in front of the light to see the images on the wall or ceiling. For added interest, see if they can figure out how to make the images get bigger and smaller by adjusting where they hold the light and object. Let them observe things on your windowsills when it is a sunny day to see how the shadows move throughout the day as the sun's position changes.

Art Activity: For this activity you will need to draw the shape of a groundhog on copy paper or card stock (you can also look for some clip art online). Let the kids color it, cut it out, and tape it to a drinking straw. You will also need a foam coffee cup.



Help the children cut a small hole in the bottom of the cup large enough for the straw to fit through. Cover the cup with brown construction paper. Insert the groundhog into the cup, putting the straw down through the hole. The children can now hold the bottom of the straw and have the groundhog pop up out of his hole and then go back down again by pushing and pulling on the straw.