Groundhog Day Rigor

Can you believe it's going to be February already?!? I don't know where this school year has gone.

I know we aren't in school on Groundhog Day which kind of takes the fun out of watching online to see if Phil sees his shadow. I think knowing how this winter is going, everyone is probably rooting for an early Spring! I did want to share some ideas of ways to incorporate rigor into activities celebrating this holiday.

1) Create a new Groundhog Day legend. Seeing his shadow just seems so five minutes ago! What are some other predictors we could use about the groundhog, if the groundhog.....?

2) Rules for Groundhog Day-what is always true about that holiday?

3) Of course, the perspective of the groundhog. What do they dream about, wish for, believe, feel, see, hear, etc. Or perspective of his shadow-there's a lot riding on him.

4) Substitute another animal for Mr. Phil. If we were using say a kitten, what would the indicator be, how would we know if we had 6 more weeks of winter.

5) New uses for groundhogs--if they can predict the seasons, what else could we use them to predict?

6) Ethics: is it right or wrong to use groundhogs for this purpose?

7) How do you think they invented Groundhog Day? Why? Why choose groundhogs?

8) Do you think Groundhog Day will change in the future?

Just some ideas as I make my lesson plans. What challenging activities do you do with the kiddos for this fun holiday?