Weather, a topic of First Grade science, is the focus for this learning community. The goals of the learning community are to foster communication and friendships between kinder and first graders in different climate zones, while meeting the First Grade Earth Science and Investigation and Experimentation standards. As students learn how to observe, measure and describe weather, they will share their data with other student communities through email, this blog and the Project Groundhog web site. Students will share stories about their school and play life. They will make comparisons and reflections on how weather plays a part in the way each community dresses and the activities and games they play.
Six schools from five different states and one from Canada have signed up, on the Kinder-1st Grade Team 1, for this years Project Groundhog. Project Groundhog is about finding out if the groundhog is an accurate weather predictor. For the next six weeks following Groundhog Day, February 2nd. Participants monitor and record the daily temperature and sky conditions of their community as well as school closures due to weather. The collected information is shared weekly with the participating schools. This year's team members come from Newfoundland-Canada, Dallas-Texas, Hermon,Maine, Paducah,Kentucky, Baltimore,Maryland and Costa Mesa,California.