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.

Fall is a great time to learn about and observe the birds in your area, but you can do this any time of year. Whether you’re watching from a backyard or a playground, you’re sure to find a few birds and can learn about the birds that are native to your region in any case.

If you do see birds at home or where your classroom is, the Merlin app is a great one (if your school allows phones). If you don’t already know it, it listens to the sounds around you and can identify birds based on their calls. Very cool and a reason for kids to be quiet while you’re observing nature. Having an old fashioned paper guidebook to the birds where you live is also a great idea because kids can use it to look up birds and it’s just fun to have in the science center.

The specific birds involved in your learning will vary depending on where you live, but here are some bird activities you can do with your kids at home or in the classroom.

Natural Beach Living set up a simple bird nature study center that includes bird books and feathers in front of a big window. There are also some printables you’ll find links to in this post including three part cards and bird observation charts for birds local to them and a bird unit study with lots of great printables (this is a paid resource).

Adventure in a Box has a printable birds of the world bingo game, which might inspire you to learn more about some of the 48 different birds included, from emu to snowy owl, grackle to Atlantic puffin.

If you’re American you’ll enjoy these state bird coloring pages from Flanders Family Home Life. If I can count, only 48 states are listed (which I wouldn’t have noticed except Arkansas isn’t there; it’s one of many whose state bird is the mockingbird). Print out all of them or just your home state, or give each child a bird to research and color to do a presentation in the classroom.

And you can learn more about the different types of bird nests and see if you can observe any of them on a nature walk with this guide to bird nests from Fun Mom Printables on Etsy. It includes information about eight types of nests with drawings and three part cards.

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