Today we are making a Groundhog Day treat or snack! Groundhog Day happens every year on February 2 and is fun to celebrate at home or in the classroom. On Groundhog Day if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow (sunny day) there will be 6 more weeks of wintery weather. If Punxsutawney Phil does NOT see his shadow (cloudy day), then an early spring is predicted.
GroundHog Day Treat
I expected to find some fun recipes online for making treats for kids on Groundhog Day. I made the mistake of searching for “groundhog recipes”. Let me just say that the word “day” is really important in this search. Otherwise, you will find recipes that describe how to skin your groundhog before cooking. Ewww!
Related: Groundhog Day craft
I didn’t find anything inspiring so I decided to just wing it. I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to make cupcakes again this year. But pre-made cupcakes sounded good to me. We went to the grocery and I asked Nicholas to find some Ding Dongs. He has only had Ding Dong cupcakes one time that I know of so I knew he wouldn’t pick it out by just recognizing the packaging. He actually had to read the words on the box in order to find them. And he did!
Child-lead Snack Idea
Then I let Nicholas help me pick out a few other things that we might use to make our Ding Dongs look like a groundhog. We didn’t have a specific plan so we bought a little more than we ended up using. We got home and set out all of our supplies to try to brainstorm what would work best. At least we had plenty of fun snacking while we were creating.
Ingredients Needed for Groundhog Day Snack
- Cupcakes – homemade cupcakes or store bought like Ding Dongs
- Mini Nilla Wafers (or mini Oreos)
- Frosting – we used the prepared in bag or can
- Mini marshmallows
- Edible googly eyes or small candies with frosting
- Chocolate chip for the nose
Steps to Make Groundhog Day Treats
- Start with a cupcake and frost with brown frosting (if not already).
- Frost mini cookies like mini Nilla wafers with brown frosting and attach to either side of your cupcake as groundhog ears.
- Add a little pink frosting or pink candy to the middle of each groundhog ear.
- Add edible googly eyes or candy with dark frosting dot in the middle for the groundhog eyes.
- Place a chocolate chip for the groundhog nose.
- Cut groundhog teeth out of a mini marshmallow. Adults can do this with a knife or wash kids scissors before and cut with scissors.
Our Finished Groundhog Day Treat
Your finished Groundhog Day treat looks like a groundhog and is super yummy! Kids can get creative with how the groundhog looks and what variations makes sense with the ingredients you have on hand.
Our Experience Making Groundhog Snack
We used Ding Dongs, Keebler mini fudge grasshopper cookies and pink icing for ears, mini M&Ms and chocolate icing for eyes, a chocolate chip for a nose, and marshmallow pieces for teeth.
Once we made our first groundhog, we had to make a few more friends for him so he didn’t get lonely. Nicholas did a great job with his creations.
More Groundhog Day Fun for Kids
We also played with a groundhog puppet that we made:
- He colored a picture of a groundhog – find a groundhog coloring page or Groundhog Day coloring pages
- Color a paper or styrofoam cup brown or cover with brown paper
- Cut out your groundhog and attach the groundhog to a pencil with tape
- Put the end of the pencil through a hole in the bottom of the cup
- Your cute little groundhog could pop his head out of his hole and see his shadow on the ground.
- Talk about how the shadows changed as he changed the angle to the sun.
Happy Groundhog Day!
More Learning Fun from Kids Activities Blog
- Check out a big list of Black History Month activities for kids
- Oh so many April Fools prank ideas!
- Thought of the day ideas for kids (and adults too)!
- Valentine coloring pages
- Jokes for kids
- Write a coded letter with a secret code
- Chores can be fun with these chores for kids ideas and printables
- Science activities for kids
- Let’s make bubble art!
How did your Groundhog Day snack turn out? Did you make it different than we did? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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