Sunday, January 27, 2013

Groundhog Day, Sale, and Pronoun Winners

As a thank you for following our blog, we are throwing a sale at our TpT store this weekend!!


And, we have our winners!!
Now, onto the meat,  :O)

Groundhog Day is on Saturday.  I don't guess it's really a big holiday, but it can be fun to talk about!  I know at this time of year we are caught up in that "I'm running out of time to teach everything so I can't throw anything in there that doesn't meet a standard!"  Buuuuuuuuut, that's when we get creative and make it meet the standards, right?  So that's what we are going to do!!

Plus, General Beauregard Lee (Georgia's groundhog) is right down the street from us, and they always have him on television for his "prediction" and the students always wonder about it, so we may as well go ahead and share the history behind it!!

We like to read Groundhog Weather School.  We teach weather in 4th grade so we can relate it back to the weather unit we taught the first nine weeks.  This is a really cute story about other animals going to groundhog weather school so they can do the job like the groundhog.  We've read it the last couple of years and the kids love it!


Groundhog Weather School

We also read Groundhog Gets a Say.  This is an informational book, all about the groundhog.  He is telling about how wonderful he is to persuade people to give him a month of appreciation in February.  It gives great facts about groundhogs AND it's persuasive!  Talk about killing two birds with one stone!!


Product Details

So, Stacia and I put our heads together and decided that we'd have our students write a persuasive piece.  There are three possibilities after reading these two books.

Click the picture and it will take you to the document.  :O)

Where, might you ask, did this cute clipart come from?  Well, I'll be glad to tell you!!  It came from 

and it was FREE!!!  Isn't he cute?!?

Now I'll share some other great resources I've seen.  Our good friend Stephanie Ann at Sparkling in Third Grade has made an adorable unit with a craftivity to go along with it!  Go by her blog and check it out...she even has a freebie fact and opinion groundhog scoot game!!  Her writing papers will go perfect with our persuasive prompts up above!!

I found so many great Groundhog Day Freebies out there, I just had to share!! (If I couldn't find a link to a blog, I linked to the TpT store!)

Here's one from Jennifer at Teaching to Inspire in 5th:


This is another freebie I found, although I had to read the directions because I wasn't sure what it meant but it's like a brain teaser (at least to my feeble brain!)  :O)



And there's tons more freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers!  It's just amazing what you can find!!  I love all of these teachers sharing their resources!!  :O)

Also, our buddy Jessica at Ideas by Jivey made a unit for Groundhog Gets A Say.  It's not a freebie but go check it out and tell her we sent ya!!

So, there you go!  See!  I told you we could relate it to the standards!  We can talk about Groundhog Day AND they can apply it to the common core!!  

What are you wishing for?  More of winter or an early spring?

Happy Groundhog Day (a few days early)!
Amanda

The blinkie groundhog came from Ruby Red Slippers.

6 comments:

  1. Oh so much cuteness here! Thanks for sharing all those wonderful resources! The books are great. I know what you mean about it not being a "big" holiday but I do think it's fun to do a little something, at least a read aloud!
    Gina
    Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always look forward to Groundhog Day. It's a fun one to celebrate!
    Thanks for grabbing my blinkie:) it's fun to see it on different blogs.
    Barbara
    Grade ONEderful
    Ruby Slippers Blog Designs

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for the book suggestions! I will definitely have to check them out. Thank you also for mentioning my freebie, it is greatly appreciated.

    Have fun celebrating!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yay! I love this! I just happened to find this Groundhog gets a say book and thought it was so cute that I HAD to make it fit. I love that you did something different than I did so I can make it fit even more next year!!! Love love love it!
    Gina
    Third Grade Tidbits

    ReplyDelete

We love comments!! Like, super love them!! We like to reply by email (so you can see our response and we can chat back and forth) so please make sure that option is turned on in your profile settings or leave your email address here! Thanks again for taking time to comment!! It means a lot!!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...