Punxsutawney Phyllis (Activities and Resources)

I don’t know about you, but Groundhog Day always seems to sneak up on me each year. It has something to do with arriving so early in February and competing with so many other holidays early in the year. I tend to read several stories aloud to build schema about groundhogs and the holiday, but then we focus in on one story, Punxsutawney Phyllis (also called Wake Up, Groundhog). Here are some activities and resources you can pair with Punxsutawney Phyllis.

Are you getting ready to read Punxsutawney Phyllis? Here are a handful of activities and a fun writing craft to pair with this book, which is also known as Wake Up, Groundhog!

All About the Book

Phyllis can’t convince Uncle Phil to get out of bed to make his prediction on Groundhog Day. When Uncle Phil realizes he has missed all the signs of an early spring, he knows it’s time to retire and pass on the title of Punxsutawney Phil. Only this time, it’s Punxsutawney Phyllis!

If you don’t already have a copy of this book in your school or classroom library, you can find it on Amazon.

Punxsutawney Phyllis

Wake Up, Groundhog!

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Punxsutawney Phyllis Activities

I’ve included some comprehension activities that can easily be added to my student’s reading response journals. These spinners are a half page each and can be used with the other groundhog books I read throughout the week. They also get the students warmed up for writing their story summaries.

Use these discussion questions and graphic organizers to focus on comprehension while reading Punxsutawney Phyllis (aka Wake Up, Groundhog!).

My students love to make crafts to go with their writing. If you read other groundhog stories, you can let your students create their own groundhog character and write a short story. Since Groundhog Day is on a Thursday this year, you could also track the weather all week and have students write a weather report for an informational writing option.

After reading Punxsutawney Phyllis (aka Wake Up, Groundhog!) students can make this groundhog craft and write about the story.

I know most classrooms have students predict whether the groundhog will see his shadow. I like to take that one step further and incorporate some graphing activities in the classroom that can be used as fast finisher activities. There are two spin, tally, and graph options included. The first is whether the groundhog will see his shadow (yes/no). The other is graphing the weather:

Since students will be getting different results, you can have the students write 2-3 statements or questions on the back about their data. (ex. Rain was seen more than any other weather. How many more votes for yes than no?)

You can find all of these activities and more here: