Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Groundhug Day will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, teaching ideas, and information about the book.
With a theme of managing stress, this Groundhug Day picture book by Anne Marie Pace is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. This book will quickly become one of your and your students’ favorite Valentine’s Day picture books too! It’s always a big hit!
Engage Your Students with Groundhug Day Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Groundhug Day.
- 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 Groundhug Day reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
GROUNDHUG DAY SUMMARY
Moose was having a party for Valentine’s Day and wanted all of his friends to be there. Bunny, Porcupine and Squirrel were ready but Groundhog was not. The friends realized it was almost Groundhog’s Day and if Groundhog saw his shadow he would not be at the party. Bunny, Porcupine, Moose and Squirrel spent the night arguing about how they could stop Groundhog from seeing his shadow.
When the sun came up they were still arguing and Groundhog started to come out of his hole. When Groundhog saw his shadow, he immediately went back inside. That’s when his friends realized he was afraid of shadows. Moose, Bunny, Porcupine and Squirrel started telling Groundhog about all the fun things they could do with shadows. Groundhog thought it sounded fun so he came out of his hole. The friends spent the day playing with shadows but at the end of the day Groundhog still wanted to go into his hole. He explained to his friends that it was too cold outside his hole. He wouldn’t be at the Valentine’s Party so the friends exchanged hugs instead.
GROUNDHUG DAY 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 Groundhug Day, 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 Groundhug Day reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making predictions
- plot | problem – solution
- summarize / retell
- making connections
- cause and effect
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- managing stress
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- proper nouns
- plural nouns
- contractions
- quotation marks
GROUNDHUG DAY 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 Groundhug Day?
- Lexile® Measure: AD520L
- Guided Reading Level: L
- DRA Level: 20 – 24
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.6
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Anne Marie Pace. It was illustrated by Christopher Denise.
What genre is Groundhug Day?
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 48 pages long.
