Groundhogs and Chinese New Year?

What do these two have in common? Not really anything other than the students learning about them the last couple of weeks. Each week we used nonfiction and some fiction reading during Daily 5 to learn more about groundhogs and Chinese New Year. Then, the students used their new knowledge to write two different pieces. They first wrote in 1st person as a groundhog and showed a map of their home. Some students decided to add extra things to their burrow to make it more exciting but all added the bathroom that they found very interesting that the groundhog had in its burrow. The next week, they wrote an information piece to teach others about Chinese New Year and made a paint-strip dragon to add to their story. Both turned out so cute!