Happy Groundhog Day!!! Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow so six more weeks of winter! Which means nothing to us Floridians, but whatever.
We started the day by gathering around the computer monitor and watching raw footage of the famous groundhog. We listened to the speech and Babe heard that Phil saw his shadow, so her prediction was wrong. Under her prediction from Tuesday, I had her write today's date and what Phil saw.
"The groundhog did see his shadow."
We then went outside and recorded the time. 10 AM. I had each kid stand in the driveway, facing the garage. I traced each of their feet, and then their shadow. Babe asked why I was tracing her shadow, and I told her I was setting up an experiment.
"With my shadow?!"
Ha. I told her we were going to go inside and I was going to set the timer for 60 minutes. Then we would come back outside and see if her shadow changed. I asked her if she thought her shadow would change.
"Maybe. But what if it's cloudy?"
That's a really great cause and effect question. It's good she gets that if it was cloudy, we wouldn't be able to trace our shadow.
So we went inside and did our groundhog craft. A really cute one actually.
Then we went outside to see if our pop-up groundhogs saw their shadows!
They sure did!
We went inside and spent the rest of the time remaining in our hour on Math. Again, very simple concept today. Activities that take more time vs. less time. I brought out a Melissa and Doug wooden shape puzzle and a Cat in the Hat jigsaw puzzle. I asked her which one would take longer to do.
"The Cat in the Hat one, because this shape puzzle I can do in like, four seconds."
haha. Smarty pants.
After she did her worksheet, I told her I was going to time her on how long it takes her to do each puzzle. We started with the shape puzzle.
13.6 seconds.
Then I had her do the Cat in the Hat jigsaw puzzle.
449 seconds.
"Wow! That's a lot longer than 13 seconds!"
haha, nice. She finished the jigsaw puzzle just as the timer went off for 11 AM, our next shadow-tracing time.
So I traced each of their shadows and I asked Babe how the second shadow was different from the first shadow.
"It's shorter!!!"
A really cool revelation. So we recorded the time and then I let them play outside a bit before lunch.
After lunch I had a special dessert that I prepared the night before, another idea from Pinterest. They were too cute not to try and it was perfect for the day.
Needless to say, they were a big hit.
After lunch, we all headed outside to do our third shadow tracing. I then asked Babe to draw a circle around where she thought her next shadow would be. She drew a circle directly behind her. I told her we'd see in 60 minutes!
We went inside where I read "Wake Up, Groundhog!" by Susanna Leonard Hill. Really a cute book! Then Z and Bubs hit the hay while Babe stayed up to catch up on Checkpoints. I had one more groundhog activity too, something new to both of us and I think it was enjoyed by Babe!
A hundreds chart! I printed out a groundhog hundred chart for her and listed the colors Babe would need to complete it. Then I told her it was kind of like a color by number, where I was going to say a number, and she'd have to color it what I say.
It was such a great number recognition activity, and not even halfway through, Babe said,
"Oh! I think it's going to be a groundhog!"
Again, smartypants. I didn't even tell her it was going to be a picture or anything. How'd she know?!
Cute.
After that activity, we headed outside one more time and traced our 2 PM shadow.
I then asked Babe,
"If our feet are in the same spot every time, and we aren't moving, how is our shadow moving?"
"Then sun must be moving!"
"Yes!"
DISCLAIMER: I know the sun doesn't move. I think as a Kindergartner it's OK for her to "know" the sun moves through the sky during the day. Until a more in-depth Science lesson on that, I think she's good for now.
Babe loved this shadow activity and I can't wait to do it again. I'm hoping it doesn't rain tonight, because I ran out of time before I could explain to her about the shadows resembling clock hands, thus introducing sun-dials and the old-fashioned way of telling time. May tomorrow, in the midst of our introduction to Valentine's Day and final preparations for her birthday party!
