Groundhog Coloring Pages

Once a year, on February 2, a groundhog becomes the most watched animal in America. The rest of the year it is a plump, busy, slightly greedy neighbor in fields and gardens, and these groundhog coloring pages show both sides: the famous moment at the burrow door and everything a groundhog does the other eleven months.

The burrow is at the heart of the collection. A groundhog stands upright at its entrance, pokes its head out of a hole by a path, holds a carrot in its underground chamber, sleeps on a nest of leaves under tree roots, and curls up in a cross section of tunnels. Then spring comes: it stretches and yawns among the crocuses, wears a scarf on a fence post beside the tulips, and stands among tall daisies.

The rest of the year is spent eating and exploring. A groundhog nibbles clover, helps itself to a lettuce in the vegetable garden, carries a tower of apples, peeks out of a herb planter, pushes a wheelbarrow of carrots in a sun hat, shares an apple with a bunny and acorns with a chipmunk, chews a twig by a stream, digs a hole between two trowels, sunbathes on a rock and watches the pond. In autumn it sits in a pumpkin patch under a scarecrow and looks up at falling leaves; in winter it rolls a snowball in mittens, holds an umbrella in the snow and sleeps in a hollow tree covered in shelf mushrooms. A mother carries her baby on her back, a whole family sits together in the meadow, and a dressed up groundhog wears a top hat and bow tie. A close-up face, two mandalas and a pattern of groundhogs and clovers complete the set.

What Groundhog Day is about

Groundhog Day comes from an old European belief that the weather on Candlemas, February 2, tells how much winter is left. German settlers in Pennsylvania brought it with them and gave the job to the local groundhog. The best known celebration takes place at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where a groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil is brought out at dawn in front of a crowd, and gentlemen in top hats announce his forecast. The rule is simple: if the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter; if it does not, spring will come early.

As a forecast it is famously unreliable, but as a way to talk about seasons, shadows and hibernation with young children, it is hard to beat.

The real animal

A groundhog, also called a woodchuck, is a large ground squirrel, a kind of marmot. It is one of the few animals that truly hibernates: through the winter its heartbeat and breathing slow right down and its body cools, and it lives on the fat it put on during the summer. That is why the summer pages are full of clover, apples and vegetables. Groundhogs dig long burrows with several entrances and separate rooms, and although they look heavy, they can swim and climb trees.

Groundhog colors

Groundhogs are easy to get right with just a few pencils:

• The fur is grizzled brown, a mix of warm brown and grey with lighter tips. Two or three browns layered on top of each other look more real than a single flat one.
• The belly and muzzle are a paler tan, and the nose and ears are dark brown.
• The feet and tail are the darkest parts, almost black brown.
• The teeth are the surprise: a groundhog's front teeth are creamy white to yellowish, like a beaver's.

For the Groundhog Day pages, the drama is in the light: a pale winter sky, white snow and a long grey shadow behind the groundhog.

Easy and detailed pages

The simplest pages keep one groundhog large with little around it, like the top hat groundhog and the face close-up. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Groundhog face
• Armful of apples
• Top hat groundhog

The detailed ones fill the page with clover, cabbages, roots or leaves. Lots of detail begins with:

• Groundhog leaf mandala
• Clover snack
• Hollow tree nap

A shadow experiment for February 2

Groundhog Day is a perfect excuse for a small experiment. On the morning of February 2, take a colored groundhog page outside or put it near a window, stand a toy or a cut-out groundhog on it, and see whether it casts a shadow. Draw the shadow on the page with a grey pencil if it does. Then compare with Punxsutawney Phil's forecast in the news, and keep the page on the fridge to check, six weeks later, who was right.

Printing a groundhog

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so every whisker stays on the paper. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers a whole February morning of pages into one file. More busy little animals are in the squirrel coloring pages and the bunny coloring pages, and the two seasons a groundhog cares about most are in the winter coloring pages and the spring coloring pages.