Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Groundhog’s Day Off will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of advocation, this Groundhog’s Day Off picture book by Robb Pearlman is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Groundhog’s Day Off Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Groundhog’s Day Off. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Groundhog’s Day Off reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
GROUNDHOG'S DAY OFF SUMMARY
Groundhog is getting tired of the same routine year after year. He wishes the tourists and reporters would ask him personal questions for once, rather than focusing on the weather. He decides that he is going to take a vacation. Before heading to the spa, Groundhog leaves a note to the people explaining they’ll have to find someone else for Groundhog Day this year.
The mayor decides that they will hold auditions for the role of Groundhog. Many animals try out but no one is right for the job. While watching the news, Groundhog hears the Mayor talking about how special Groundhog was. Groundhog is excited to hear how much people think of him and rushes back to his hole. Everyone is excited to hear from him and ask him questions. On Groundhog Day, he gets what he always wanted, everyone is interested in him instead of the weather.
At the end of the day, Groundhog happily heads back to his hole and hears on the news that Bunny has quit!
GROUNDHOG’S DAY OFF LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Groundhog’s Day Off, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Groundhog’s Day Off reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making inferences
- making predictions
- making connections
- visualizing
- analyzing illustrations
- plot (problem and solution)
- identifying genre
- sequencing
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- advocation
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- adjectives
- colon
- commas
- italics
GROUNDHOG’S DAY OFF ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Groundhog’s Day Off?
- Lexile® Measure: AD550L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Robb Pearlman. It was illustrated by Brett Helquist.
What genre is Groundhog’s Day Off?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.
