Groundhog Day By: Zaira Sandoval Holmes Middle School 7 grade

February 2nd each year: Groundhog Day is celebrated in the U.S. each year on February 2nd. On this day in mid-winter, the groundhog awakens from a long winter's nap, and goes outside of his den to see if he sees his shadow. This tradition is big on an otherwise cold and dreary mid-winter's day. According to legend, if the groundhog sees his shadow (a sunny morning), there will be six more weeks of winter. He then returns to his den and goes back to sleep. If however, he does not see his shadow (cloudy days), he plays around outside of his hole for a while. If he does not see his shadow, spring is just around the corner. The Groundhog's Day tradition travelled long ways. It comes from German roots. German immigrants brought the tradition with them from Germany. As they settled in hills of Pennsylvania, they began the tradition of using the Groundhog to predict the the arrival of Spring. The tradition is based upon Candlemas, the day that is the midpoint between Winter and Spring. A famous Candlemas poems goes: If Candlemas be fair and bright, Winter has another flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Winter will not come again.

Woodchucks, also known as groundhogs and whistle pigs, are the largest members of the squirrel family in their geographic range. They have ever-growing incisors that must be worn down by chewing to prevent serious health issues. They are true hibernators, which means they enter the burrow in the late fall and sleep until spring. Their burrows have multiple entrances, may have 45 feet of tunnels and go as deep as five feet.
RANGE: East central Alaska south to northern Idaho and across southern Canada as well as throughout the eastern United States to central Alabama and Arkansas and west to the Plains states.HABITAT: Edges of forests where there is open land, along fence rows, heavily planted gullies or stream banks, farmland, grassy pastures, woodlots DIET: Primarily herbivores grazing on grasses and forbs (any non-woody flowering plant that is not a grass), clovers, leaves of sassafras and other trees, farm crops and a variety of herbs. When green vegetation is not readily available, woodchucks will eat buds, bark, twigs, fruits (i.e. apples and paw paws) and occasionally insects, snails and bird eggs.

President's Day By: Zaira S. Holmes Middle School 7 grade

George Washington became a experienced surveyor. Following these, years fought in the French and Indian war. After the war he returned to Mount Vernon in 1758, married Martha Danbridge in 1759, and became a planter. That same year he became involved in the politics and was representative to the Virgina House of Burgesses. He was representative until 1774. When he became a delegate to the Continental Congress. In May of 1775 George Washington was appointed commander of the American army during the Revolution. He was the first President, (1789-1797) governing the 13 states.

Presidents' Day in 2012 is on Monday, the 20th of February. In the United States, Presidents Day is always celebrated on the third Monday of February. Presidents' Day in 2012 is on Monday, the 20th of February. In the United States, Presidents Day is always celebrated on the third Monday of February. President Barack Obama is the incumbent candidate. A Democrat, he grew up in Indonesia, studied at Columbia and Harvard universities, and served in the U.S. Senate before becoming the first African American president. Before that, he was a lawyer, teacher and community organizer. In foreign policy, Obama withdrew some troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and ordered the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. He entered politics in 1996, first serving in the Illinois State Senate and then in the U.S. Senate in 2004. After a well-received speech at the Democratic Party convention in Boston that year, Obama caught the party’s attention as a serious contender to unseat the Republican Party from office. He is the son of Barack Hussein Obama Senior, a Kenyan who came to the U.S. on an academic scholarship, and Ann Dunham, an American from Kansas. He has two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and is married to Michelle Obama, also a lawyer from Chicago.