Groundhog Day Party

Last year, I hosted a Groundhog Day party for a couple of reasons. First, it was an excuse to have a party during the mid-winter blahs.

Second, it was DB's first year of elementary school and because of his early-September birthday we weren't able to invite the class to a party to get to know everyone.

Like I really needed an excuse! Anyway, as usual with my ideas I did not find one good source for the information I was looking for. I see a little more this year, but not much.

I also got a lot of good feedback about my creative ideas, which makes me think perhaps someone else will benefit from them.

So, I put together a 26-page ebook with ideas for food, activities, and games. It's available HERE.

It includes PDF's of my Groundhog Day poster -- all you need to do is print each page on regular, 8-1/2x11 sheets of paper and tape them side-by-side on the wall!


Here are two of the best URLs I found for this holiday. Honestly, many links at the bottom of the sites I visited last year were broken, so I'm trying to save you following dead trails in a fruitless search for stuff:

Punxsutawney, Pa's main Groundhog Day information site has activities, printables and facts. Go to the Teacher's Corner, then click "Activities for Kids."

If you print "Phil's Puzzle," here is a hint: The outside is not entirely square! In other words, put together the puzzle and draw an outline of the outside edges with a marker before you give it to little kids. You may be better off cutting up your own puzzle using a coloring page.

The "Lessons Plans" area has lots of games and even words to "Groundhog Carols" set to the tune of popular holiday songs.

Punxsutawney Phil's main site has some fun, brief interactive items which are really handy if you're trying to entertain your kids on this subject at the last minute.

This year I see a couple of Groundhog Day crafts to buy at the Oriental Trading website; I didn't see anything like that in 2008. That makes me think it's a growing trend, yah?

Finally, I even put together my very own Groundhog Day book list link.

I should have even more stuff to put in the 2010 edition, since I'm having a Groundhog Day party in DB's class this Friday!