Groundhog Day Activity - Close Reading Digital Mystery - Missing Groundhog

Engage your students with a high-interest Groundhog Day activity that challenges them to read closely, make inferences, and support their thinking with text evidence. In this interactive mystery, students step into the role of investigators as they work together to determine who kidnapped Garth, the beloved groundhog, before the annual Groundhog Day ceremony. This close reading activity moves beyond surface-level comprehension and pushes students to make inferences and justify their conclusions using specific evidence. Designed for collaboration and discussion, this high-interest activity improves inference skills, critical thinking, close reading, and problem-solving, and encourages students to support every claim with text evidence. While this Groundhog Day activity is perfect for early February, it is flexible enough to use at any point in the school year as an engaging close reading and inference lesson.

Reading mystery back story: Groundhog Day is here, and a community anxiously awaits to hear the verdict from Garth, the beloved groundhog, as to whether there will be six more weeks of winter. However, when he fails to emerge from the ground for the annual Groundhog Day ceremony, the event planners realize someone has taken Garth from his underground burrow. Your students need to identify the guilty culprit!

This is a Google-compatible activity, and students complete all the work on the computer. This works well with distance learning, 1:1 classrooms, remote teaching, Google Classroom, or for online education.

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Included in this Digital Groundhog Day Activity

➡️ Groundhog Day Activity Google Slides Presentation: This 15-slide Google Slides presentation guides the Groundhog Day activity from beginning to end. It introduces the backstory, presents the evidence, and walks students through the final reveal. The slides help structure the inference mystery and provide clear explanations outlining why each suspect is innocent or guilty. The built-in answers make whole-class review simple and easy.

➡️ “Who Took the Groundhog?” Digital Poster: Use this eye-catching digital poster on your projector to hook students the moment they walk in. It sets the tone for the Who Stole the Bunny Mascot activity and immediately sparks curiosity about the mystery they are about to solve.

➡️ Original Narrative Backstory: This short narrative sets the scene on Groundhog Day when Garth disappears. Students learn about the ceremony, who was nearby, and the unusual details surrounding the disappearance. The story establishes the timeline, introduces potential suspects, and provides essential background information students will reference throughout the investigation. Hidden clues and subtle hints are embedded within the narrative, requiring careful close reading and attention to detail.

➡️ A Variety of Digital Clues and Evidence: Students examine a variety of evidence presented in realistic formats, requiring them to read carefully, compare details across sources, and piece together information to build a strong, evidence-based conclusion. The evidence includes a news teleprompter script, a blog post, a medical report, a social media post, a scientific research proposal, a building permit application, an email, and a text message. Each piece contains relevant details that may support or refute a suspect’s involvement. Students must use close reading and draw logical inferences based on what the texts reveal.

➡️ “Who Took the Groundhog?” Digital Graphic Organizer: This graphic organizer helps students track clues, record important details, and organize their reasoning during the inference mystery activity. Students list information they learn about the suspects, cite specific evidence, and explain how each clue supports or contradicts their theory. The organizer ensures conclusions are grounded in close reading and text evidence.

➡️ Teacher Answer Key: A detailed answer key is included in the slideshow. This allows for a dramatic whole-class reveal at the end of the Groundhog Day activity.

How This Digital Groundhog Day Activity Works:

• As students enter, place them into small groups so they can collaborate and begin working together to solve the mystery.

• Use the Google slides to guide you through the close reading activity. The slides help you set up the backstory before they begin analyzing the evidence.

• Distribute the digital evidence to each group, giving students time to read carefully, analyze the details, make inferences, and locate specific text evidence that supports or refutes each suspect. Encourage discussion within groups as they compare ideas and build their case.

• Once each group has made a final prediction, use the presentation slides to reveal the culprit. Review each suspect one by one, walking through the evidence that proves their innocence or guilt so students can clearly see how strong text evidence leads to a logical conclusion.
  
  

What Teachers Are Saying About This Groundhog Day Activity

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I cannot say enough how much they loved this activity! We created case files and they worked in small groups to figure out the mystery. They loved the BIG reveal the next day!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is by far the best resource I've purchased this school year! It was fun, engaging, and rigorous. My students were able to work with relevant academic content in a unique way.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was GREAT! My students worked in pairs to solve the mystery and engagement was through the roof. When the culprit was revealed in the end, they were all shocked. We loved it.

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