Groundhog Day Activities for Kids

February 2 is Groundhog Day, the day when a famous groundhog in Pennsylvania “predicts” when spring is going to come based on whether its shadow can be seen that day.

It’s kind of a silly holiday, which is just the sort of thing kids (and teachers) love, so let’s explore from Groundhog Day activities for kids.

Groundhog Day is really a holiday about the weather, so also check out my weather activities for kids, where you can make your own weather tools, felt board and more.

Learn more about groundhogs from National Geographic Kids. Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks (or whistelpigs, though I’ve only heard that on Curious George) and they are herbivore mammals that like to burrow under open areas like fields. They don’t really predict the coming of spring, but male groundhogs do tend to emerge from hibernation in early February.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has some great free printables for Groundhog Day, including a letter tracing page, labeling the parts of a groundhog, predicting the weather and a roll and color page. There are also alphabet puzzles and matching cards, mazes and more.

Make super cute cut and color Groundhog Day hats as a class with this free printable from Simply Kinder.

Homemade Heather has a bunch of cute printables including a coloring page, build a groundhog and groundhog bookmarks to cut out and color. Everyday Chaos and Calm also has free coloring pages for the day.

Practice counting with these printable puzzles from Kindergarten Worksheets and Games. There’s a strip puzzle for counting to 10 as well as a tens frame puzzle with 100 little pieces for counting to 100.

Play with the groundhog’s shadow with this fun paper plate craft from Crafty Morning. Because the groundhog is on a stick he can pop up and down in the scene and you can make him have a shadow or not as you like. I also love this groundhog stick puppet project from Typically Simple, which uses a cardboard tube as his burrow.

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Learning about the Weather with Kids

My daughter is 16 and one of her favorite things to do on school breaks is watch The Great British Bake Off. It’s such a soothing show, as well as being creative and fun, and it’s low stakes enough that it isn’t stressful, which is just the thing you need when you’re on a break from school.

If you don’t have an oven or want to do your own real Bake Off challenges, this baking show inspired drawing challenge from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls is a great alternative. This works best if you have a group of kids to play, but you could also do it along with a child at home.

The post includes a bunch of different “baking” challenges for kids to draw. As an example: “Draw a dozen delicious doughnuts! Be sure to include at least two different flavors of icing. Challenge yourself to think of as many creative toppings as you can.”

Give them a set amount of time (maybe 10-15 minutes) to draw their creations based on the prompt. Then have each child present their creation, explaining what they chose to draw and why (and what the different flavors are if it’s not obvious).

There doesn’t have to be a winner, but kids can vote on their favorites or you can “award” things like most colorful, tallest creation, etc. Sarah suggests if doing this with little kids you can come up with an award for everyone, but there need not be prizes involved.

With older kids you might do a couple of rounds and pick winners so that you can have a “star baker” just like in the show.

This is a game that would be a lot of fun for kids of different ages, and you can do it multiple times with the different prompts.

Get all the details and the challenge cards from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.

[Photo: Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls]

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