Groundhog Day, or Weather
Forecasting
In fact it would be an ultimate crime
If I do not share it with the rest of the world.
It is about a little furry bugger named Phil.
Phil is a groundhog.
Isn’t that a good beginning for a lesson on an unusual topic:
Groundhog Day? This popular American holiday is known in our country mainly thanks to the
film Groundhog Day (1993) with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. People are
evidently having fun and enjoying themselves regardless of the weather and
prognostication. Why not making an amusing lesson out of this material in February, or any
time, while introducing the Weather topic which is in the school curriculum.
I gave this lesson on February 2nd in my classes (grades 7 to 10) suggesting different
activities on different levels. The students really enjoyed the topic.
Lesson Planning
1. Introduction
2. Story about the holiday (according to the scheme on the blackboard)
3. Translation competition
4. Film
5. Activities
What can you tell your students about the holiday?
Groundhog Day is a popular American holiday which is hardly known in
Russia. However, it is a funny and light-hearted celebration. Moreover, it is becoming
more and more popular in the USA. This fact is also worth mentioning when discussing other
American holidays.
1. Why a groundhog?
The Delaware Indians considered groundhogs their honorable ancestors.
According to the original creation beliefs of the Indians, their forebears began life as
animals in “Mother Earth” and emerged centuries later to hunt and live as men.
It is interesting to know that the groundhog and the squirrel come from
the same family.
2. Where?
In 1973 the Delaware Indians settled Punxsutawney in what is now
Pennsylvania as a campsite halfway between the Allegheny and the Susquehanna Rivers. The
town is 90 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The name Punxsutawney comes from the Indian name
for the location “ponksad-uteney” which means “the town of the sandflies”.
3. What about? When?
When German settlers arrived in America in the 1700s they brought a
tradition known as Candlemas Day, which has an early origin in European pagan
celebrations. It came in the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.
Superstitions held that if the weather was fair, the second half of winter would be stormy
and cold. For the early Christians in Europe it was the custom on Candlemas Day for clergy
to bless candles and distribute them to the people in the darkness of winter. A lighted
candle was placed in each window.
The day’s weather was important. If the sun came out on February 2nd, halfway between
winter and spring, it meant six more weeks of wintry weather.
The earliest American reference to Groundhog Day can be found at the Pennsylvania Dutch
Folklore Center: From Berk County (Pennsylvania) storekeeper James Morris’ diary…
“Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas Day, the day on which, according to the Germans,
the Groundhog peeps out, of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for
another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be
moderate”.
According to old sayings from England:
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter has another fight;
If Candlemas brings cloud and rain
Winter will not come again.
From Scotland:
If Candlemas Day is bright and clear
There’ll be two winters in the year.
From Germany:
For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day
So far will the snow swirl until May
For as the snow blows on Candlemas Day
So far will the sun shine before May.
4. Why? Who?
The point is that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, an
animal would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of winter. Germans watched a
badger for the shadow.
In Pennsylvania, the groundhog, as it came out from his mid-winter
hibernation, was selected as a replacement.
5. When did the holiday begin?
Pennsylvania’s official celebration of Groundhog Day began on
February 2, 1886. “Phil’s” predictions have been recorded since 1887.
6. Titles
The groundhog was given the name Penxsutawney Phil; Seer of Seers;
Sage of Sages; Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary
and his hometown thus called the Weather Capital of the World.
Translation of Poems
A translation competition can be reasonably held at the lesson. The
poems on the topic are distributed beforehand for a preliminary translation. The exercise
can be held as an in-class competition or a competition between classes (as was our case).
The results of the competition and the best translations are to be exhibited on the wall
and the winners should be rewarded somehow.
For the intro-class competition in the 9th grade, I suggested a poem The
Groundhog and Winter by William Slaght.
 On February
second
A groundhog is beckoned
To climb out of his winter home
And stretch his legs and begin to roam.
It has been many days,
Cooped up in his burrow maze.
And now he has a certain craze
To feel the sun’s rays.
He pokes his nose into the cold
From the home in which he was holed,
And looks around
Then climbs out of the ground.
He is very timid and shy
And he’s ready to say goodbye to the sky
Because he doesn’t want anyone to see –
And especially a she –
That his brown fur is coated with grime,
And that he didn’t take the time
To use his comb
Before leaving his home.
He is so afraid to be seen,
Ready to run home to get clean,
That even his shadow will make him jump
And run to his home to grump
And because he fears critiques
He’ll remain there for six weeks.
And according to lore
If winter hears him snore,
Then it will decide to stay
For six more weeks, to our dismay.
The poem was logically cut into quatrains and each student translated a
small part. At the lesson a complete text was compiled. Not in a unified style, as it may
seem. The resultant poem turned out to be a surprise for the children. Finally the
translations of the two grades were compared. Who do you guess was the winner? It goes
without saying that each class liked their own translation.
Anyway both works deserve to be cited.
Когда наступает день второго февраля,
Мы вынимаем из норки очень сонного сурка.
И он, вылезая из зимней квартирки,
Неспешно потягивается, поправляя шерстинки.
И начинается у него длинный день,
Хотя его, несомненно, одолевает лень.
Наташа Савилова
День прошел, другой настал,
А сурок все в норке спал.
Солнца луч попал в нору,
Он понравился сурку.
И вот появились простые мечты,
Увидеть скорее солнца лучи.
Кристина Ломако
Он высунул нос на холод
Из дома, точней из норы.
Сперва слегка огляделся,
Потом поднялся с земли.
Игорь Юшин
Робкий, застенчивый, очень доверчиво
Небу однажды сказал он «Прощай!»
Не хочет он видеть мира беспечного,
О тени своей он забыть обещал.
Шерстки коричневой, грязью покрытою
Пугливо стесняется скромный зверек.
А время спешит, но не дружит с расческою,
Из дому выйти боится сурок.
Катя Саликова
Боится сурок, что его все увидят,
Не хочет грызун никого здесь обидеть.
Спешит наш сурок поскорей причесаться,
Тем временем тень его начинает брыкаться.
Бежать от критики он не ленится,
На шесть недель в доме скорее укрыться.
Настя Ковалева
А закон всегда таков:
Если зима услышит храп сурков,
Она решит остаться
На шесть недель, чтобы над нами посмеяться.
Щербакова Таня
Второго февраля
Сурок дает нам знать,
Что хватит ему спать,
И лапы потянув, идет он погулять.
Иван Григорьев
Он долгие дни в заточении сидел.
Темно там и нету свечи.
Конечно, давно уже он захотел
Почувствовать солнца лучи.
Таня Никиточкина
Он высунул в холод свой нос
Из дома, в котором сидел,
И, выбираясь на свет,
Окрестность он всю оглядел.
Наташа Игнатова
Он очень застенчивый,
Его пугает свет солнечный.
И он не хочет, чтоб кто-нибудь,
А особенно она,
Увидели, какая грязная у него спина
И что он не брал расческу,
Чтоб сделать себе прическу.
Ира Антонова, Таня Калугина
Боясь быть увиденным,
Бежит в норку чистить шерстку
И быть невидимым.
Он критиков опасается
И в норке еще на шесть недель
От них скрывается.
Светлана Валова
Согласно древней сказке,
Услышав храп сурка,
На шесть недель остаться
Решает вдруг зима.
Лида Макаренкова
The translations may not sound homogeneous enough but they reflect the
pleasure of collective work.
Here are more poems and rhymes to be translated at different levels at school:
Fun on Groundhog Day
(by Barbara Walker)
There are shadows you make in the sunshine,
There are shadows you make by the lamp,
There are shadows that lurk in the forest
While you tell creepy stories at camp.
There are shadows that help you with puppets,
And shadows you make just for play,
But the shadow that’s famous is Groundhog’s,
When he tells whether winter’s to stay.
Let’s go out very early this morning
And watch for his shadow, my son:
It may not be at all scientific,
But you’ve got to admit that it’s fun!
Mr. Groundhog’s Shadow
A groundhog lives down deep in the ground.
He sleeps through the winter.
And every year about this time
He wakes up and wonders,
“Is it time to get out of bed
Or pull the covers back over my head?”
So he pokes his head up out of the ground.
Will he see his shadow?
Here’s a Little Groundhog
(can be sung to the tune “I’m a little Teapot”)
He wakes up and wonders,
“Is it time to get out of bed
Or pull the covers back over my head?”
So he pokes his head up out of the ground.
Will he see his shadow?
Here’s a Little Groundhog
(can be sung to the tune “I’m a little Teapot”)
Here’s a little groundhog
Furry and brown.
He’s coming up
To look around.
If he sees his shadow
Down he goes,
Then six more weeks
Of winter snows.
Mr. Groundhog
(can be sung to the tune “Frere Jacques”)
Mr. Groundhog, Mr. Groundhog,
Take a peek, take a peek.
If you see your shadow,
The weather will be awful
For six more weeks, six more weeks.
Little Groundhog
Little Groundhog down below,
Underneath the winter snow.
Come on out and tell us true,
Is spring coming?
Is winter through?
Here is a game for beginners that can be performed for the holiday or
just played in class. First make the pupils act out in a specific way to certain phrases
which will make it easier to memorize the poem:
Five Little Groundhogs
The first little groundhog crept out of his lair. (fingers creep)
The second little groundhog said, “Is spring in the air?” (eyes look up)
The third little groundhog asked, “Is the time right?” (look at wrist watch)
The fourth little groundhog squirmed, “The sun is too bright!” (cover eyes)
The fifth little groundhog squeaked “My shadow I see!” (look over shoulder at the
shadow)
“I’m not staying out here! No, siree! Not ME! (shake head “no”)
“Back to my burrow I’m going to creep.” (eyes closed, hands by face)
These poems and rhymes have been taken from various sources. There is
one more poem that you can easily find in the Reader of the Happy English 2
course by Klementyeva and Shannon. This one was a happy choice for the translation
competition in the 8th grades. The versions were amazing, especially the one in the
‘rock’ style which was artistically sung by the author.
My Shadow
(by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me.
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head:
And I see him just before me when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow –
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometime shoots up taller like an India rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think it a shame to stick to nurse as that shadow sticks to me.
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepyhead,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
Activities
Here are some activities that can be suggested beforehand for the
students to be prepared for the holiday:
1. Pop-up groundhog. Wrap a paper cup in green construction paper. Add
fake grass or moss to the edge of the cup. Have each student make a small groundhog and
glue him to a popsicle stick. Punch a hole in the bottom of the cup. The children can move
the groundhog up and down in and out of his hole.
2. Write a story about what Phil might be doing in that hole all winter
long if he is not hibernating.
3. Have the children go outside several times each day to measure their
shadows. Record and discuss why it is longer or shorter at certain times.
4. Make a class chart of predictions whether or not Phil will see his
shadow on February 2.
5. Research and present reports on other animals that hibernate during
the winter.
6. Write an imaginary interview with Punxsutawney Phil.
7. Discuss some popular weather lore and have the children work in
pairs to make up their own. They can make it as strange as they want.
8. Have the children draw pictures of a groundhog. Decorate your
classroom with the portraits.
There is more interesting information that can be found on the Internet
in groundhog sites including the records of Phil’s past predictions made almost every
year since 1887. According to the last one (2002) Phil saw no shadow.
Experience shared by Marina Tropinskaya,
Teacher of English, School No. 1732, Moscow
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