READY TO ROW:

Kick-off Breakfast:

We kicked off our Valentine’s Day row with a sweet breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.

Cover Art:

Parker drew a beautiful picture of the groundhog as his cover art.

Story Disk:

Parker colored our story disk and placed it around Alberta, Canada.

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

My daughter created beautiful digital art to match this picture book. I used it to create a Bible verse printable for this book.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

Parker chose to trace the Bible verse for this row.

Since Parker memorized his verse so quickly, he also memorized 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 while rowing this book during Valentine’s Day.

Bible Lessons & Character:

We read several fun books about love, being kind and helping others.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Geography:

In order to identify where this story could take place, we needed to map out where we could find groundhogs and moose.

After researching, we found the best locations to be Canada or the American East coast. Since our US map was already over-crowded on the East coast, we chose to position our story in Canada.

Groundhog Day:

We read a couple of books about groundhogs.

Afterwards, Parker created a groundhog puppet craft that he found at the end of the Groundhog Day book.

Valentines Day:

Saint Valentine:

We read about the history an origins of Valentine’s Day in our Mystery of History, Vol II book.

We also read Valentines Day by Gail Gibbons.

We read a couple extra Valentines books for fun!

Post Office:

We read about the postal service, then and now.

Afterwards, Parker completed the postal math worksheet.

Valentine Cards:

We read Little Bear’s Valentine together.

Parker wrote a letter to his friend and drew a picture to accompany it. He weighed it to ensure it was covered with a postage stamp and he placed it in the mailbox.

Saint Patrick’s Day:

We read Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day.

We also read Fiona’s Lace, which Parker and I thoroughly enjoyed. Patricia Polacco is a fantastic storyteller.

Afterward, Parker completed the Saint Patrick close reading text from our Story Review.

Easter:

To begin our Easter lesson, we studied the crucifixion by reading “The Sun Stops Shining” from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Since Rabbit spent a good amount of time dyeing Easter, eggs, and Easter traditions around the world.

We also read Reschenka‘s Eggs and dyed Easter eggs together as a family.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Poetry:

Although the guide recommended My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson, Parker wanted to memorize Sick by Shel Silverstein. I made him a copywork page and he started writing it down.

Dialogue:

Parker reworked a Greek myth using dialogue between Icarus and Daedales.

We read it together while reviewing the rules of writing dialogue.

Short Story:

Prepositions:

Since we were planning a fictitious party in math, I thought it would be fun to have Parker complete our Valentine Party Prepositions activity. He Loved this activity!

MATH:

Calendar:

After our lesson on calendar math, Parker worked through his February calendar, adding birthdays and holidays.

Party Planning:

Parker and I went over our lesson on party planning.

Afterwards, we decorated for Valentines Day.

SCIENCE:

Creature Feature:

As with Love Letter, Night Animals and You’re on Your Way Teddy Roosevelt, we used the creatures in the story as a large science unit.

Groundhog:

Parker read Backyard Wildlife Groundhogs on our Epic app.

Parker sketched and completed the animal classification worksheet for the groundhog.

Parker also read Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox as well as Groundhog Weather School.

Moose:

Parker read North American Animals Moose on our Epic app.

Parker sketched and completed the animal classification worksheet for the moose.

We also read Beaver Pond Moose Pond and If You Give a Moose a Muffin for fun.

Rabbit:

Parker read Rabbits, Rabbits & More Rabbits.

Parker sketched and completed the animal classification worksheet for the rabbit.

Afterward, we read a sweet book about an adopted stuffed bunny who was loved as is.

Porcupines:

Parker read Creatures of the Forest Habitat Porcupines.

Parker sketched and completed the animal classification worksheet for the porcupine.

We also read a cute, though young, Porcupine Valentine book.

Sunlight & Shadows:

Sunshine:

Since we recently did a complete study of the seasonal equinoxes and solstices, we brought out Sun Bread, a fun book about bread and sunshine.

Shadows:

During our science unit about shadows, Parker read Follow It! Learn About Shadows.

Winter:

Since a groundhog “predicts” whether or not there’ll be an early spring or more weeks of winter, we read a few winter themed books.

Balloons:

Since we were learning about planning a Valentine’s part which would include balloons, I had Parker read Balloon Trees.

Using our Periodic Table placemat, Parker completed the You Raise Me Up!

HELPFUL LINKS:

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our Groundhug Day Pinterest Board.

Youtube Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created Groundhug Day Playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other clips.