Groundhog Day

I have always thought that Groundhog Day was pretty cheesy.

 

I know, I know!  What kind of kindergarten teacher am I if I don't embrace the cheesy holidays.

 

So I decided to give it a go this year and even found these two great books on Amazon.

 

 

I also decided to make a cute little reader for my kids. 

 

 

Everything was all set to go.

 

And then we ended up having a snow day on Groundhog Day. 

 

But since I already had everything all ready to go, we celebrated on Tuesday.

 

The first book I bought "Who will see their shadow this year," is super cute.  Well they both are.  But I had always loved the story "Who will carve the turkey this Thanksgiving."  And it turns out the author has made several of these themed books for different holidays.  (I bought the Valentine version too)  Anyway, if you haven't read it, you need to.  My kids thought it was hilarious! The other animals are tired of winter, so they decide to see what happens when they see their shadow.  Their shadows cause a tornado, a sandstorm, snow, and other hilarious weather.  It actually went perfectly with our weather theme in reading this week.

Then we made our reader.

 



Before we started, I cut apart all the pieces so I could pass them out as we completed each page.  Most of the time my kids cut out their own pieces and are responsible for keeping up with them.  But we when do a little reader like this as a whole class, I will cut them apart myself so that I can pass them out one at a time.

I displayed my reader on the Promethean Board using my document camera.

 

I went ahead and colored mine beforehand because I've noticed that if I take time and color something well, my kids will too.

Isn't little Punxsutawney a cutie!

Still loving my glue sponges!

 

I no longer have to hear: my gluestick is broken, my gluestick is dried out, I can't find my lid, she stole my gluestick, etc; every time we glue.

Working hard!

And of course I had to incorporate some writing.

I just love seeing how far each student has come with their writing.  The majority of my students are comfortable with writing at this point and don't stress over it.



Love seeing this little one use her finger spaces!

 

The story "Ten Grouchy Groundhogs" was adorable too.  We read it after we completed our readers.