Looking for answers to your Groundhog Day questions? You’ve come to the right spot! Click the links to the left to learn about various aspects of the Groundhog Day holiday, and how we’ve been celebrating it in Punxsutawney since 1886.

Here are some answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the holiday:

Yes! Punxsutawney Phil is the only true weather forecasting groundhog. The others are just impostors.

How often is Phil’s prediction correct? 100% of the time, of course!

How many “Phils” have there been over the years? There has only been one Punxsutawney Phil. He has been making predictions for over 120 years!

Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking the “elixir of life,” a secret recipe. Phil takes one sip every summer at the Groundhog Picnic and it magically gives him seven more years of life.

On February 2, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob – in front of thousands of followers from all over the world – to predict the weather for the rest of winter.

According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

No! Phil’s forecasts are not made in advance by the Inner Circle. After Phil emerges from his burrow on February 2, he speaks to the Groundhog Club president in “Groundhogese”(a language only understood by the current president of the Inner Circle). His proclamation is then translated for the world.

The celebration of Groundhog Day began with Pennsylvania’s earliest settlers. They brought with them the legend of Candlemas Day, which states, “For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May…”

Punxsutawney held its first Groundhog Day in the 1800s. The first official trek to Gobbler’s Knob was made on February 2, 1887.

So the story goes, Punxsutawney Phil was named after King Phillip. Prior to being called Phil, he was called Br’er Groundhog.

Emotional Literacy

EMOTIONAL LITERACY is the first step towards emotional intelligence. It is the ability to recognize, understand and appropriately express our emotions. It is an essential skill which we must work to develop. Once acquired, it gives us an alternative to violence, illness, drug abuse, dysfunctional relationships, and global societal conflicts.

As we evolve and our cultures change, new forms of literacy are required to give us the proper tools to deal with a broad and ever-changing spectrum of issues.

Today the need for Emotional Literacy is ever increasing, and is one of the best investments that we can make for ourselves and our children.

Emotions are an integral part of human nature. Through them we respond to life in many different ways, such as with anger, happiness, fear, love and loneliness. Emotions influence our thoughts and actions; they inspire our needs; they affect our bodies and impact on our relationships. They are not enemies to be rebuffed, repressed or rejected but rather allies to be honored, understood and directed. Ignored they become willful tyrants; respected they are our cherished helpers.

Becoming emotionally literate is learning the alphabet, grammar and vocabulary of our emotional life. In a world where academic literacy is increasingly the norm and other literacies, such as technological and computer, are expected, emotional literacy must become commonplace in order for human beings to grow, evolve and face the challenges of the future.

A major contributing factor to many of the problems in modern society is unawareness of the key role played by emotions. Emotional Literacy is a positive preventive tool, which properly understood, can assist society in solving many of its ills.

The capacity to deal with emotions positively is an essential element of good health. The direct connection between good health and the emotional state of a person is well documented.

Dysfunctional relationships on all levels are destroying individuals, families and whole communities. Emotional Literacy will support families and permit them to grow as individuals while sustaining a close bonded relationship.

The baby whose distress is responded to lovingly and promptly will learn confidence. A child who understands the important role of emotions will have a better foundation for a joyful, fulfilled and integrated life. Adults living in healthy relationships will serve as positive role models for their children. Older people who have learned to practice emotional literacy can complete their days with peace of mind.

Emotional Literacy can help businesses by transforming individuals and making them more efficient. By encouraging employees and managers to solve emotional problems as they occur, optimum results will be achieved.

Emotional Literacy is universally relevant. It can benefit every individual, every organization, and every profession because it has the capacity to transform each person and his or her relationships.

Emotional Literacy is a key to taking advantage of all your possibilities. It is basic to joy and enthusiasm for life. It is fundamental to your ability to love others.

Emotional Literacy is a profound and beautiful language available to everyone that can be implemented rapidly, safely, and with lasting effect. Learning how to become emotionally literate is one of the best investments that human beings can make for themselves, their children, and the future.

Chinese New Year – AOL Research & Learn

Holidays- Chinese New Year: Fast Facts – AOL Research & Learn

Chinese New year and Chinese Spring Festival

The Mathematics of the Chinese Calendar

I have a dream that one day the state… will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

MLK  Fact Monster

Activities

Timeline of Events in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Life

Martin Luther King

January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days.

January begins (astrologically) with the sun in the sign of Capricorn and ends in the sign of Aquarius. Astronomically speaking, the sun begins in the constellation of Sagittarius and ends in the constellation of Capricornus.

January is named for Janus (Ianuarius), the god of the doorway; the name has its beginnings in Roman mythology, where the Latin word for door (ianua) comes from – January is the door to the year.

Traditionally, the original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months, totalling 304 days, winter being considered a monthless period. Around 713 BC, the semi-mythical successor of Romulus, King Numa Pompilius, is supposed to have added the months of January and February, allowing the calendar to equal a standard lunar year (355 days). The first day of the month is known as New Year’s Day. Although March was originally the first month in the old Roman Calendar, January assumed that position beginning in 153 BC when the two consuls, for whom the years were named, began to be chosen on January 1. The reason for this shift of the new year into the dead of winter was to allow the new consuls to complete the elections and ceremonies upon becoming consuls, and still reach their respective consular armies by the start of the campaigning.

Various Christian feast dates were used for the New Year in Europe in the Middle Ages, including March 25 and December 25. However, medieval calendars were displayed in the Roman fashion of twelve columns from January to December. Beginning in the 16th century, European countries began officially making January 1 the start of the New Year once again — sometimes called Circumcision Style because this was the date of the Feast of the Circumcision, being the 8th day from December 25.

Here are some websites that you can connect with the book and the movie.

StoryNory

Holidays

Class X01 is celebrating the December holidays by exploring different customs in the country of Italy.  The legend of the Befana has had an important role in the imagination of all children of the world.  Those who wish to relive the magic of the first wonders of infancy and understand the meaning and origins of this extraordinary figure, should be prepared to undertake a long voyage that will carry them back in time, to the origins of human’s history. We’ll discover what makes this personage so mysterious and arcane, because this little old lady so dear to children has continued to fascinate them for centuries, and they still await her arrival on the night of her holiday.

ceppo: The ceppo is a wooden frame several feet high designed in a pyramid shape. This frame supports several tiers of shelves, often with a manger scene on the bottom followed by small gifts of fruit, candy, and presents on the shelves above. The “Tree of Light,” as it is also know, is entirely decorated with colored paper, gilt pinecones, and miniature colored pennants. Small candles are fastened to the tapering sides and a star or small doll is hung at the apex.

Christmas in Italy

The Christmas season in Italy goes for three weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas known as the Novena. During this period, children go from house to house reciting Christmas poems and singing.In some parts shepherds bring musical instruments into the villages, play and sing Christmas songs. 

In the week before Christmas children go from house to house dressed as shepherds, playing pipes, singing and reciting Christmas poems. They are given money to buy presents.

A strict feast is observed for 24 hours before Christmas Eve, and is followed by a celebration meal, in which a light Milanese cake called panettonefeatures as well as chocolate.

Presents and empty boxes, are drawn from the Urn of Fate – lucky dip, which always contains one gift per person. By twilight, candles are lighted around the family crib known as the Presepio, prayers are said, and children recite poems.

At noon on Christmas Day the pope gives his blessing to crowds gathered in the huge Vatican square.

In Italy the children wait until Epiphany, January 6, for their presents. According to tradition, the presents are delivered by a kind ugly witch called Befana on a broomstick. It was said that she was told by the three kings that the baby Jesus was born, she was busy and delayed visiting the baby.

She missed the Star lost her way and has been flying around ever since, leaving presents at every house with children in case he is there. She slides down chimneys, and fills stockings and shoes with good things for good children and it is said leaves coal for children who are not so good.

Schedule

http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/

DID YOU KNOW?

$711,394.58

Nationwide students in 807 schools gathered $711,394.58 in pennies during the 06/07 school year.

A Pretty Penny

The most valuable pennies known to exist were minted in 1793, and the only four known to exist today are worth $275,000 each.

Award winner!

Common Cents won the NY1 New Yorker of the year award for 2007.
» learn more

Child Philanthropy

The Penny Harvest is the largest child philanthropy program in the United States

Copper?

Pennies made from 1793 to 1837 were pure copper. Today the alloy is 97.5% zinc and only 2.5% copper.

Faces on coins

In 1909, President Lincoln appeared on a one-cent coin and became the first real person—as well as the first American president—to have his face appear on a regular-issue American coin.

Facing right

Why does the portrait of Abraham Lincoln face to the right when all of the other presidents’ portraits face to the left? Lincoln faces right not because of a law, but simply because Lincoln happened to face right in the image Brenner used to design the coin.

More pennies

There are more one-cent coins produced than any other denomination

Penny Designs

There have been 11 different designs featured on the penny.

Students’ Self-worth

100% of teachers surveyed this year agreed that participation in the Penny Harvest increases students’ self-worth as well as increasing students’ empathy for the needs of others.

Then and now

The image on the first cent was of a lady with flowing hair, who symbolized liberty. The coin was larger and made of pure copper, while today’s smaller penny is made of copper and zinc.

What’s in a name?

The proper term for a once cent coin is “one cent piece,” but in common usage this coin is often referred to as a penny or cent. Many times, even the Treasury Department and the United States Mint use the term penny because that is what is normally referred to in general use by the public.