More Groundhog Day

This is just a follow-up post to the last one.  If today was Groundhog Day instead of tomorrow then I would be sad to say that it looks like 6 more weeks of Winter!  Aren't our little groundhogs cute?  The groundhogs weren't the only ones who enjoyed seeing their shadows today.

The children had such a great time playing outside, it was the most gorgeous day!! It's hard to believe that people all around the country are experiencing the cold and snow on days like this.  We Floridians are truly blessed (until July and August that is!)

Here's one of our favorite songs this week.  I'm not sure where the song originally came from.

 Sung to the tune of I'm a little teapot.

Here's a little groundhog, furry and brown.

He's coming up to look around.

If he sees his shadow, down he'll go!

Then six more weeks of Winter! OH NO!!

For the song we make one hand into an open fist and place the other hand inside.  Raise up a thumb for the little groundhog as he looks around and pretend he sees his shadow and quickly pop your thumb back down into the fist. The children yell out "Oh No". Very cute!

In my last post I explained about a little Science project we do with shadows. Here's what we did.

We taped dark colored construction paper to plastic trays.  These trays are going outside and it was a very windy day so the tape was a necessity.  We would not have needed it on a calm day but we rarely have those around here.

The children then wandered around the classroom to find something that they could put on the paper.  It seems that hearts were very popular today. 

Put the trays outside in full sunlight and then keep an eye on them to see what happens.

After about an hour we moved the items off the paper and voila, we have shadows on our paper.

What we learned from this project:

• Foam hearts ARE NOT heavy enough to stay put when a strong wind blows
• Blocks and plastic toys ARE heavy enough to stay in place on the paper
• Objects on the paper that are not totally flat cast their own shadows (which is not conducive to shadow art)
• objects on the paper block the sun from reaching the paper underneath
• Sunlight fades paper
• The sun is not always in the same position when we are looking for it (we will discuss why later)
• Additionally, talked about each object on the paper individually and described it's purpose, color, weight and size.

Groundhog Day is Coming

February is such a fun month.  Groundhog Day which is one of my favorite times of the year in the classroom begins the month.  Children love exploring their shadows and the shadows of objects outside.  If you lay different shaped objects on dark construction paper outside (easy to do in sunny Florida) and leave it for an hour then you get shadow prints. Letting  children pick the object they lay on their paper is fun because afterward they can let the other children guess what their object was.  We use different shaped blocks, combs, small plastic skeletons (left over from halloween) and anything else the children find in the classroom and want to use.  I'll try to get a photo of one of these awesome pieces of art so you can see how cool they are.

 Graphing whether or not Punxsutawney Phil, the great Groundhog Day Prognosticator, will see his shadow is a great math experience.  Let children choose whether they think the groundhog will see his shadow or not and add to the graph and then encourage them to survey other staff members and add that to your graph.  Have the children and their parents listen to the radio before coming to school the next morning (Groundhog Day) and have them announce whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not.  Children get so excited when they hear the answer on the radio. 

The children also really enjoy making little groundhog stick puppets and planting them outside in the grass on a sunny day. It wasn't very sunny when I took this photo of all our little groundhogs poking up from the ground.

We monitor and mark where the groundhog shadows fall at different times during the morning.  The children are amazed to see their groundhog's shadow move even though the little guy is still standing in the same place.  You can use any groundhog image and let the children decorate it and glue it firmly to a popsicle stick. In the photo you can see that there are a few groundhogs up against the building.  I do  not put stipulations on where they put their groundhog, we learn as much from the groundhogs "in the shade" as we do the ones in the sun. 

Did you know that groundhogs are also called woodchucks, whistle pigs and marmots?



Blog Under Construction

This blog is under construction as I figure out the ins and outs of setting everything up.  Soon it will be a reference for early childhood educators. Check back by.