Our Groundhog Facts

We did a little research and this is what we found out about groundhogs:

Groundhogs are about one and a half to two feet long. They are pretty much loners, but sometimes you see them with other groundhogs. They have sharp claws and like to keep on the ground. Plus, they have really sharp teeth. - Jason

Groundhogs have summer and winter dens. The groundhogs den is usually in dry wood areas. Their dens have two entrances. A groundhog can live for several years. Most of them live a short life.  - Jed

Groundhogs have white teeth. Groundhog are mostly vegetarians. Groundhogs are about one and one half feet long. The groundhog lives in a burrow. - Katelyn

Groundhogs have winter dens usually made by wood.  They have summer dens 2 - 4 feet deep under barns. Groundhogs have 3-5 or up to 9 cubs in a litter. They only have one litter a year. Groundhogs live long lives, but most get run over. Groundhogs’ enemies are bears, wolves, lynx, bobcats, cougars, foxes, dogs and humans. - Sierra

Groundhogs usually live from 2 -3 years, but they can live up to 6 years in the wild. Groundhogs are about one and a half to two feet long including their tail. Sometimes the males are larger than the females. Most groundhogs are vegetarians. They like to eat fruit & vegetables and sometimes eggs. -    Hallie

Groundhogs have about 2 - 6 babies at a time. Groundhogs are shy sometimes. People give them food.  They can climb up trees. - Mylee

Groundhogs are the prey of bears, wolves, lynx, bob cats, cougars and foxes. They can live for several years, but most don’t live long, they get hit by cars! So you better drive slower! It is amazing that groundhogs can climb trees! Another name for a groundhog is a wood chuck. - Jessen

Groundhogs live in gardens if they dare! Groundhogs are about one and a half to two feet long. Groundhogs have white teeth. They can live for several years. - Devin

Groundhogs are mammals. The groundhogs’ enemies are bears, wolves, lynx, bobcats, cougars, foxes, dogs and humans. On average they have between 3- 5 babies per litter.  When they feel threatened, they let out a whistle or shrill noise!  - Joey

Mother & Fathers don’t even share living quar ters after the young ones are born. Groundhogs are about one and a half to two feet long. Groundhogs live in holes. Groundhogs eat grasshoppers, insects, snails, and other small insects. - Brielle

Their teeth are white. They are vegetarians. They have two dens. One for winter and one for summer. Families don’t stay together.  - Kiara

They live for several years except when they get run over by cars. They do not live together all their lives. They whistle and shrill to communicate. I learned that they make carpet out of leaves and wipe their feet before entering their den.  - Josh

Groundhogs mostly like fruit and vegetables but they like pizza, too! Groundhogs are one and a half to two feet long with short legs. Groundhogs have only one litter per year. They only have four to six babies. - Haylee

Groundhogs are more than one color.  Groundhogs can climb trees. Another name for a groundhog is wood chuck.  They lives in a burrow. They grow to  2-4 feet long. - RaShea

Groundhogs don’t live together. Mothers and fathers don’t sleep in the same place after young are born. Groundhogs live for several years. Groundhogs can climb trees. - Cody

 I learned that groundhogs can grow up to 1-2 feet long.  Males are sometimes bigger than females.  Groundhogs have white teeth. - Kaleb

Groundhogs are about one and a half to two feet long including their tail.  They eat fruits and vegetables of all kinds and some will eat eggs.  They don't eat bugs and they are not meat eaters.  Their feet have five well developed toes and they measure to 3 - 3.5 inches long. Their dens are 2-4 feet deep and they wipe their feet, too!  They can have up to 3-5 cubs per litter. - Kilee

Did you know that another name for groundhog is woodchuck?  A groundhog is about one and a half to two feet tall.  Their teeth are pure white.  They live up to several years long.  They dig dens underground.  - Teigen

I learned that groundhogs get killed by bears, wolves, lynx, bobcats, cougars, foxes, dogs and humans.  I also learned that when a mother groundhog's den is disturbed the mother runs away.  A mother groundhog has three to five cubs per litter and only one litter per year.  I learned that groundhogs live for several year and some only have a short life. - Dade

Groundhogs teeth are white.  Groundhog is another name for woodchuck.  Groundhogs are about one to two feet long.  Josiah

Groundhogs have five toes on each foot.  They, the toes, are 3 to 3.5 inches long.  Did you know that they can climb trees? Well, they can.  Isn't it awesome?  Groundhogs ear grass and other plants.  They have brown fur. - Jillian

Groundhogs are the largest sciurd in its geographical range.  It measures up to 40 - 65 cm long. Most of the time groundhogs live from two to three years long. Groundhog and woodchucks are the same animal - student in our room

A groundhog is about the size and weight of a cat. The ears are small and round. The head is flat with a pointed snout. The eyes and nose are black. The fur is brown and gray. Their legs are short and strong. They have very sharp teeth and claws - another student in our class

Groundhogs have teeth.  They have different colors of fur.  They can climb trees.  They eat grass and sometimes pizza if people feed it to them.   - another student

Week 4 for partners

Week 4 Average Temperatures

Altamont, UT, USA - Alvin

2.167 Celsius,  35.9  Fahrenheit

The results are:

Hawthorne, BC, Canada -Harry

16 Celsisus,  60.8   Fahrenheit

La Crescenta, CA, USA - Cuddles

 Celsisus,   Fahrenheit

Stratton, ON, Canada - Brody

-10.2  Celsius,    13,62   Fahrenheit

Vanderhoof, BC, Canada - Schniggle Fritz

- 20 Celsius,   - 4   Fahrenheit

Wickliffe, OH, USA - Willie

-0.27   Celsius, Fahrenheit

Week 4 Data

Our weather this week

Monday 38.7 Fahrenheit,Sunny

Tuesday 42.3 Fahrenheit, Cloudy

Wednesday 38.7 Fahrenheit, Sunny

Thursday  36.8 Fahrenheit, Cloudy

Friday 27.6 Fahrenheit, Cloudy

These readings were taken at 10:30am each day at the school.

The wind picked up this week!

Wickliffe Community Description!

Here is another description by one of our partners:

Our school is Wickliffe Progressive Community School. There are 450 students in our schools. (423 girls and 427 boys) We have 66 teachers and staff members. We have 20 classrooms that range from kindergarten to fifth grade. We have a music teacher, art teacher and PE teacher as well. Our group participating in the Groundhog Project is a group of first through fourth graders who meet with Mrs. Boyle. She is our enrichment teacher. There are sixteen students in total.

At recess we like to play on the playground, play four square, swings on the tire swing, play basketball and jump rope. We have extra activities at Wickliffe such as band, orchestra, technology club, choir, and safety patrol and recess alternatives. We do after school discovery classes like chess; pottery and other classes the parents organize. Some of us participate in cub scouts, girl scouts and Indian princesses and Indian guides.

Our school is in Upper Arlington. In our school district there are 5 elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. Our school mascot is the Wolf. The High School mascot is the Golden Bear. Mrs. Boyle was telling us a story about the most famous golden bear…Jack Nicklaus; he went to Upper Arlington High School and to Ohio State. He is a famous golfer.

Upper Arlington is a suburb of Columbus Ohio. We are right in the middle of the state of Ohio. Near by is the Ohio State University. Some of our parents work at OSU. Over 30,000 people live in Upper Arlington. There are many doctor’s offices, parks, shops and restaurants in Upper Arlington. Some of our favorites include Giant Eagle, Kroger and Whole Foods (grocery stores), Macy’s and CVS. Most of the other stores are locally owned stores. Nearby are malls with stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Trader Joe’s, abercrombe and Hollister. Places to eat around us include Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Donatos (pizza), Pizza Hut and Bob Evans (great breakfast!) There are two hospitals close to us but not in Upper Arlington. The Library system in our town has three branches. The main library is closest to us.

In Central Ohio we have all four seasons. We can usually play outside for recess all year long. Sometimes in winter it gets too cold and we have indoor recess. The spring can be rainy but most often it is nice. We have animas around our school. Some of the animals we see often are squirrels, chipmunks, birds and rabbits. Some of our classes have pets such as guinea pigs, snakes, and hamsters. In Mrs. Boyle’s class we have a webkinz as our class pet. (If you don’t know a webkinz is a plush toy and there is a website to go and play with it.) The land around us is flat. It is good for farming and there are farms in the outlying areas around us. No one in our class or even in our school lives on a farm. There is a farm at Ohio State University but it is mostly for teaching students about farming.

Half way for others

Good predictor of weather, or not?

Hawthorne, BC, Canada -Harry

Week 1 9 Celsius, 49.2 Fahrenheit

Week 2 6 Celsius, 42.8 Fahrenheit

Week 3 10 Celsius, 50 Fahrenheit

La Crescenta, CA, USA - Cuddles

Week 1 22.2 Celsius, 71.9 Fahrenheit

Week 2 14 Celsius, 57.2 Fahrenheit

Week 3 18 Celsius, 64.4 Fahrenheit

Stratton, ON, Canada - Brody

Week 1 14.4 Celsius, 57.9 Fahrenheit

Week 2 -3 Celsius, 26.6 Fahrenheit

Week 3 Celsius, Fahrenheit

Vanderhoof, BC, Canada - Schniggle Fritz

Week 1 -2 Celsius,  28.4 Fahrenheit

Week 2 - 12 Celsius,  10.4 Fehrenheit

Week 3 - 18 Celsius, -0.4 Fahrenheit

Wickliffe, OH, USA - Willie

Week 1 -2.7 Celsius,  27.1 Fahrenheit

Week 2 2.43 Celsius,   36.37 Fahrenheit

Week 3 Celsius, Fahrenheit

Wishing everyone a great week of learning.  

This picture came from HogHaven.com!

Half way

We are half way through our project. Here is the summary of the results so far:

Fahrenheit Celsius

Week 1    35.2 1.8

Week 2 31.5 -0.28

Week 3 34.04 1.13

What do you think?  Did Alvin predict right about more winter storms or is this really spring on its way?

Hey, Hey, we are excited! Prairedale Elementary have a Blog, too.  Check them out at 

Prairedale Elementary.  Schniggle Fritz and friends from Vanderhoof we welcome you to blogging!

Week 3 data for all!

Week 3 Average Temperatures

Altamont, UT, USA - Alvin

 1.13   Celsius,  34.04  Fahrenheit

The results are coming soon:

Hawthorne, BC, Canada -Harry

10 Celsisus, 50 Fahrenheit

La Crescenta, CA, USA - Cuddles

18 Celsisus,   64.4 Fahrenheit

Stratton, ON, Canada - Brody

-16.2  Celsius, 2.84  Fahrenheit

Vanderhoof, BC, Canada - Schniggle Fritz

- 18 Celsius,  -0.4 Fahrenheit

Wickliffe, OH, USA - Willie

3.89   Celsius, 39   Fahrenheit

Groundhogs!

We have loved learning about groundhogs.  Today we went to a couple of websites with lots of information about groundhogs to learn more about them.  Here are the two websites:

Groundhog at wikipedia and Hoghaven.com .  The HogHaven site has photos and even movies and soundclips of real groundhogs!  

Here are some of our drawings of Groundhogs.

Week 3

Our weather this week

Monday 34.4 Fahrenheit, Cloudy

Tuesday 34.5 Fahrenheit, Cloudy

Wednesday 33.7 Fahrenheit, Cloudy

Thursday   34.3  Fahrenheit, Sunny

Friday    33.3 Fahrenheit, Sunny

These readings were taken at 10:30am each day at the school.

This week we had terribly strong cold winds which produced a much colder feeling temperatures because of the wind-chill!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you all a very "Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is a fun Valentine's page filled with lots of activities to try.

Week 2 data for All

Week 2 Average Temperatures

Altamont, UT, USA - Alvin

 -0.28 Celsius,  31.5  Fahrenheit

Hawthorne, BC, Canada -Harry

     6   Celsius,  42.8  Fahrenheit

La Crescenta, CA, USA - Cuddles

     14   Celsisus,  57.2   Fahrenheit

Stratton, ON, Canada - Brody

 -3 Celsius,          26.6 Fahrenheit

Vanderhoof, BC, Canada - Schniggle Fritz

  -12 Celsius,         10.4  Fahrenheit

Wickliffe, OH, USA - Willie

   2.43 Celsius,     36.37   Fahrenheit

Week 2 Data

Week 2 here in Altamont

Monday        32.7  Fahrenheit  Cloudy with snow showers

Tuesday        30.2 Fahrenheit   Partly Cloudy

Wednesday  32.0  Fahrenheit  Partly Cloudy

Thursday      30.7  Fahrenheit   Snowy

Friday 31.9 Fahrenheit   Cloudy

Average for the week     31.5 Fahrenheit

- 0.28 Celsius
The above chart shows the temperature here at around 10:30am.

Happy Valentine's Day Greetings

Prariedale Elementary sent us this message:
Happy Valentine's Day! Sending you a sweet treat I created online just for you.
To check the card, click here:
http://www.theoworlds.com/valentine/index.php?CardID=166868

Our Lady Of the Way sent us this message:
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! My class is sending you electronic Valentine's that they made using Kid Pix. You can view them at our class website:

http://olow.tncdsb.on.ca/GROUNDHOG.mht

Warning: The above link only works in Internet Explorer on a pc

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is Alvin with his very first Valentine!

We would like to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day!

From Altamont Alvin

Week 1 data for All

Week 1 Average Temperatures

Altamont, UT, USA - Alvin      

1.8 Celsius,  35.2 Fahrenheit

Hawthorne, BC, Canada -Harry

9 Celsisus, 48.2 Fahrenheit

La Crescenta, CA, USA - Cuddles  

22.2 Celsisus, 71.9 Fahrenheit

Stratton, ON, Canada - Brody  

14.4 Celsius,  57.9 Fahrenheit

Vanderhoof, BC, Canada - Schniggle Fritz

-2 Celsius, 28.4 Fahrenheit

Wickliffe, OH, USA - Willie

-2.7 Celsius,   27.1 Fahrenheit

Greetings from Norma Goodard

Here is our description of our community. 

Hi, we are students from Lincoln Elementary School. We have 20 students in our class. We have 11 boys and 9 girls. We have four third grade classes at our school. There are 515 students in our school. We live in city of La Crescenta in the state of California. La Crescenta is in a valley between two mountains. We live about 13 minutes from downtown Los Angeles on a good day. We measure distance in time because there is so much traffic in Southern California. When there is a lot of traffic it just takes longer to get anywhere. There are about 16,968 people living here in our city. We have lots of beautiful trees. The weather is usually nice most of the year. We have bad rainstorms and sometimes lots of wind. In the summer, it is really hot. We can cool off by going to the beach that is nearby. We live about an hour away from Disneyland. 

Greetings from Our Lady of the Way Statton, Ontario

Our Lady of the Way School is a Kindergarten to grade 8 Catholic school located in Stratton, Ontario.  There are about 85 students in our school.  Our class is a grade 3/4 class with 15 students.  All of our students take the bus to school.  Some have more than an hour bus drive to school each way!

Our community is a rural community in northwestern Ontario.  Most of our students live in homes and many live on farms.  We have to travel to Fort Frances for most services such as an airport, hospital and recreation.  We do have a curling rink, post office and a couple of shops though.

Stratton is located in the Rainy River district between Fort Frances and Rainy River.  The land is mostly flat and we have lots of wild animals such as deer, moose, bear and partridge.

Other Communities - Vanderhoof, B.C. Canada

Schniggle Fritz's Community of Vanderhoof, B.C. Canada
Our School:
Our class goes to Prairiedale Elementary School. Our school has only 4 grades: Kindergarten-grade 3. There is only one of each class. In our class we have 20students. There are 8 girls and 12 boys in our class. All of our students either take the bus or get a ride to school, no one walks. The reason is because our school is in the middle of the country. The closest house is about 2 kilometers away. Our town is about 10 kilometers away.
Our Community:
Vanderhoof is a small town in the country. The closest major city is Prince George which is about one hour away. We are located in the middle of British Columbia which is a province in the country of Canada. Most kids live in houses in Vanderhoof, although a few live in apartments. About 3 of us live in the country (out of Vanderhoof).

Vanderhoof has 3 banks, a hospital, 2 grocery stores, 3 dentist offices, an arena, bowling alley, skate boarding park, curling rink, library, tennis courts, 4 parks, horse stables, other stores and small restaurants- Subway, A&W, KFC, Tim Horton’s to name the major ones. Most of the community is involved in the forest industry and in farming.

Landscape:
Our town is located on a plateau. We have low mountains surrounding us. The Nechako River runs right through our town. There are many trees in our area and that is why the forest industry is important.
Because we live in the country we have many wild animals. There are moose (a cow and her twins often stroll through our teacher’s yard!!!!), deer, bears, bald eagles, fox, cougars, coyotes, garter snakes, salmon, trout, the Nechako white sturgeon and sucker fish. Our Nechako River is protected as a bird sanctuary for Canadian geese. They arrive in the spring to eat grain off of the stalks. They then leave and return for the fall to eat again before they leave for the winter.

You can visit out class website at http://mail.sd91.bc.ca/~mantoski/

Week 1 Data for Altamont

Week 1

Monday 30 degrees Fahrenheit  with a blue sky and only a few clouds in the sky

Tuesday  35.2 degrees Fahrenheit with blue sky all around

Wednesday 35.5 degrees Fahrenheit with blue sky all around

Thursday 36.1 degrees Fahrenheit with partly cloudy skies

Friday     39.3   degrees Fahrenheit with cloudy skies

The above chart shows the temperature here at around 10:30am.

Weekly average is 35.25 degrees F. or 1.8 degrees Celsius

3 sunny days, 2 cloudy days

Hi from Brody & Stratton Ontario

Hello everyone! I like your idea of setting up a class blog, Carol! I think I am going to try that too! In the meantime, we have chosen a name for our groundhog - Brody and we predicted 11-6 (students, teacher and teacher assistant voting) that Brody would not see his shadow. Wishful thinking on our part - he indeed saw his shadow on Monday. I have included some pictures (our vote and checking shadows on Monday - sure was COLD here!) with this email of some of the activities we have done over the last week. Enjoy your weekend!

Ellen Hicks  -  Our Lady of the Way   --  Stratton Ontario

Altamont's Community

Here is information about our Community and School:

Altamont Elementary School has an enrollment of about 355 students in grades Kindergarten through 6th. There are presently two classes of each grade level, except Kindergarten which has three! Our school pulls students from throughout the surrounding communities including Altamont, Altonah, Boneta, Bluebell, Mt. Emmons, Mountain Home, Talmage, and Upalco. At one time our school was an open school, but several years ago the rooms were enclosed. Because of this, most of our rooms have an odd shape, but that makes it interesting!

Our playground has a paved area where we play basketball, kickball, tetherball, hopscotch, etc. We have a grassy field where we play soccer and other sports. We also have a softball diamond behind the school in the field. After school, just like most children everywhere we find lots to do. We play with our friends, ride bikes, watch tv, play video games, go to scouting activities or dancing and piano lessons, and do chores and homework (only if we really have to!). We enjoy riding bikes and horses and going hiking and camping and have great fun here.

In our class, we currently have 28 students...... 14 boys and 14 girls! We have 2 that walk, 8 that are dropped off by a parent and 18 that ride a bus most days. Most of our students live in houses. We have no apartments in the area.

Altamont is a rural community of about 250 people in the northeastern corner of Utah. We are located in Duchesne County. We are at the foot of the Uinta Mountains, the only major mountain range in the USA that runs east and west. Altamont has an elevation of about 6400 feet above sea level. We have cold winters and pleasant summers. Altamont is the center of a farming and ranching area that has a population of about 2000. There are also many oil deposits nearby, and the oil industry is a major employer in the area.

If you were to come to Altamont, you could visit the High Uintas Wilderness Area where Kings Peak, elevation 13,528, is the highest point in Utah. People from all over come here in the summer and fall to relax by hunting in the local mountains and fishing in the beautiful streams. We also have world class fly-fishing in still waters that interests many people.

Many of our community members work about 20 miles away from us in the city of Roosevelt. The county hospital and many businesses are found there, including the movie theaters and swimming pool. If we want Walmart, Kmart, Lowes, and skating rinks or indoor pools, we have to travel on to Vernal.

We are only a little over an hour away from Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal, Utah. You can see actual dinosaur bones there embedded in the rock mountainside just as they were found. It really is fascinating to see. We enjoy going there on field trips from our school. While going through Vernal, you also need to stop at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park and Dinosaur Gardens.

Flaming Gorge is also a beautiful sight to see. Be sure to check it out, too!

Not far away, as well, you can find perfectly preserved pictographs left by the ancient Anasazi and Fremont cultures that existed from 1 A.D. to the l300's. Nine Mile Canyon is my personal favorite. Here you might see hundreds of rock art figures. You may even find yourself in the exact area where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up.

As we have mentioned, we are very near the mountains. All around us you can also find desert. There are not many trees down here. Sagebrush is abundant and our ground seems to produce many rocks! There are prairie dogs in that same deserty area. In the mountains, we have coyotes, elk, bear and other animals normally found in that environment. There are deer. In fact, there are two young deer that roam the neighborhood of our town daily.

Did he see his shadow?

As I'm sure every knows by now, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning and is predicting six more weeks of winter.  So did Wiarton Willie in Canada.  Its unanimous from the famous groundhogs!

Here is Altamont Alvin and as he can clearly see, his shadow is shining big and clear.  That was news that we really did not want to hear!

What about our team groundhogs?  Did they see their shadows or not?

Altamont Elementary (UT): Altamont Alvin: Yes, he saw it!
Hawthorne Elementary(BC): Hawthorne Harry: Yes, he saw it!
Norma Goddard (CA): Cuddles: Yes he saw it!
Our Lady of the Way(ON): Brody: Yes, he saw it!
Prairiedale Elementry (BC): Schniggle Fritz: No, he did not see it!
Wickliffe Progressive Community School(OH):  Yes, he saw it!

Happy Groundhog's Day

Happy Groundhogs Day to all!  Please enjoy this card!