February planning

So here we are with February knocking on our door and there are things we can note and use in curriculum planning...

• 100 days of school
• Groundhog Day
• Presidents Day
• Black History Month
• George Washington
• Abraham Lincoln
• Music
• Sports
• Valentines Day
• Chinese New Year
• Winter Olympics (although not this year)
• Blizzard Cooking

So many things to look at - but to start at of course is Groundhog Day. A quick trip to wikipedia reveals the following: Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly "see its shadow" and retreat back into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.

But there is more to it than that of course, and a brief bit of research between the library and the Internet, and your students can learn about holidays celebrated about the world in February, and the symbols (birthstones and flowers etc) and all sorts of other things that can make a cold month not seem so stifling.