no groundhogs here

We celebrated (well, we noted the arrival of and watched with interest the events surrounding) Groundhog's Day this month. Most of my students had never heard of such a "holiday"--much less the groundhog itself. (It's the only holiday named for an animal.) It seems the Christian celebration of Candlemas the the traditions surrounding it in Germany and England (hedgehog in England) have been abandoned by all but those crazy Americans. With bated breath we watched the skies on 2 February. It started cloudy and we were glad! (We had learned to appreciate clouds and the warmth they trap during our SUNNY cold snap in January.) Then, the sun broke through. We knew the grounhog would tell us we were doomed to six more weeks of winter.

Happily, the lack of groundhogs in Russia seems to have rendered this prediction null and void! I wanted to share with you the excitement and joy that's filling our classroom as we feel spring approach. The birds have returned and are singing away. The days are SO much longer! The sun is up 'till 6 p.m. And, it's much warmer, much gentler weather. Yesterday morning it was 0 C for the first time this year. And, by the end of the day, the mercury had crossed into the positive zone. My second graders kept asking, "PLUS 8? It's PLUS 8? Not minus? PLUS?!!?!" Today we broke into positive numbers and recorded a whopping 2 C. We were thrilled to see our weather graph rise into positive numbers. We're all enjoying the coming of spring. Of course, we know it's not here yet. It's still snowing. But we can FEEL it coming. Everyone is busier and happier--on the streets, in the shops, at school...

I hope this has let you share in the joy we're feeling as our world prepares to melt. Spring IS coming. We know it. We feel it. We believe it--even in the midst of another gentle snowfall.