"Groundhog Day"

We predicted that Snoozer, our classroom groundhog, would see his shadow.   Our prediction was correct...he did!  However, Manitoba Merv our provincial groundhog, did not see his shadow.  Even though Environment Canada is leaning towards Merv's forcasting powers we feel confident that Snoozer's prediction will prove more accurate!

Prior to Snoozer making his prediction, Mrs. Desrosiers our technology teacher, did an interview with Terry Macleod on CBC radio to talk about Project Groundhog!   Reporter Nick Martin from the Winnipeg Free Press and a News Journalist from the A Channel joined our classroom as Snoozer made his prediction.  We made the news and so did Snoozer!  Snoozer's celebrity is beginning to go to his head...its a good thing he can't write otherwise he'd be signing autographs all day long! 

The following is an excerpt from the Winnipeg Free Press (February 3, 2000)

At Earl Grey School yesterday, the kids in a Grades 1 to 3 alternative class took Snoozer out into the snow and watched his shadow stretch gloriously across the playground.  The children are part of Project Groundhog, a continent-wide Internet project that enlists 96 schools in Canada and the U.S. over the next six weeks to track local weather, research groundhogs and the environment, examine their own community, and share it all on the web. 

They'll visit the Fort Whyte Centre to figure out what causes shadows, and they'll learn why you pronounce the g in groundhog, but not in gnaw, technology support teacher Merle Desrosiers explained yesterday.  Technically, Snoozer isn't a groundhog, he's a stuffed toy beaver, but that's as close as Desrosiers could come for a project mascot, she said with a laugh.

The Earl Grey kids are sharing information with eight schools in Newfoundland, New York, Colorado, Wisconsin, West Viriginia, and California.  Each day they record the temperature, weather, sunrise and sunset using sophisticated research methods - they look it up in the Winnipeg Free Press - and then post it on the Project Groundhog website at the end of the week.

"The kids are asked to come up with a good definition of what winter is and what spring is, and see how good a predictor the groundhog is," Desrosiers said.  "Part of it is coming up with a really good picture of a community."

Eight-year-old Rebecca got to carry Snoozer yesterday, since Groundhog Day is also her birthday.  "It's sort of weird", she said with a laugh, adding that the project is a neat way to learn. 

Our Groundhog Shadow Predictions

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