Groundhog day is nearly here and it is an exciting time as we wait to discover if Spring will come early! We will be celebrating this year with a few fun activities and read alouds.
- Read Alouds
I wrote my own book called “La marmotte se réveille“. We have been working on retelling stories in my classroom and I wrote this book with that in mind. The story features a cute little groundhog, asleep in his burrow. Groundhog Day arrives and the children come to wake him up! As with all of my French Emergent Reader packages, I include a colourful “Big Book” version. I use this as a shared reading or read aloud. It eventually will go into our classroom library as my students love to read these books all year long!
The story also comes in two black and white versions – one is great for sending home and is done in a colouring book style!
The other one has the illustrations missing. Students can cut out the provided images and then glue them to the correct pages to help show their understanding of the story.
We will also be using this book to work on some retelling activities! The “La marmotte se réveille” package includes several differentiated retell pages that you can use to help your students retell this cute story.
2. Videos on Youtube
There are a couple of cute videos available on Youtube! The first one is a short video about a groundhog having trouble getting a meal! It is wordless. We use this video to practice our retelling skills!
If you have time to do some work with non-fiction, I also like this documentary about groundhogs.
3. Fun Activities
Besides reading some fun books, we also work on a little activity booklet I have available in my TPT store. The package features a set of word wall cards to help with vocabulary.
Also included is a set of 7 fun activities to help you celebrate Groundhog day. All activities are designed to be photocopied front to back on two pieces of paper. With writing prompts, a labelling activity, guess the secret word and a word search, this booklet is a fun way to celebrate Le Jour de la Marmotte with your students!
You can find this activity booklet when on TPT when you use THIS LINK!
4. Art
I do a lot of directed drawings with my class and I always love how they turn out! Proud to be Primary‘s website is one of my go-to sites for some great directed drawing activities. While the instructions are in English, I find it easy enough to give them in French for my students!
How to Draw a Groundhog: The Directed Way to Teach Your Students
How do you celebrate Groundhog Day in your classroom?
Read More: Read Aloud Wednesdays – Fafounet et la tempête de neige
Read More: Read Aloud Wednesdays – La vie secrète des bonshommes de neige
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