At a Glance
Did you know a chipmunk can stuff up to 70 nuts in its cheeks at once? This World Chipmunk Day post is packed with chipmunk facts, jokes, cross-curricular learning ideas, low-prep indoor and outdoor activity ideas, book recommendations, a participation certificate and a set of lovely printable chipmunk activities for your preschool, kindergarten and other young learners! Celebrated every year on March 22.
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What Is World Chipmunk Day?
World Chipmunk Day is celebrated on March 22, and it’s all about noticing chipmunks, learning what makes them unique and enjoying a bit of nature-themed fun with your little learners.
The day is often traced back to a 2021 wildlife-education article from Procyon Wildlife Rehabilitation & Education Centre, written by Elizabeth Trickey, which helped popularize the idea of giving chipmunks their own day (especially online).
Why Is World Chipmunk Day Special?
Chipmunks are a perfect first wildlife study creature for preschool through early elementary. They’re small, familiar in many areas, and their behavior is wonderfully dramatic (quick scampers, sudden freezes, and those famous and adorable stuffed cheeks). World Chipmunk Day gives you a simple reason to pause and pay attention.
For early years, it’s also a gentle way to build respect for living things. Watching quietly, giving animals space, and noticing habitats helps your children practice curiosity and kindness at the same time.
Learning Opportunities
World Chipmunk Day can be a wonderful time to help your little learners explore animals and habitats in a way that feels playful. It’s also a great chance to build language, time for some early STEM thinking, fine-motor play.
Here are a few key areas children can explore:
Animal Homes
Chipmunks are known for living in burrows – their underground homes that can include sleeping areas and food-storage spaces.
That’s a great bridge to some early science vocabulary (habitat, shelter, safe, storage, tunnel) and to a simple big idea – animals need homes that help them stay protected and find food just like we do!
If you have outdoor space, (a tree, a hedge, a garden bed), it can become a mini habitat your children can revisit to notice changes over time.
Cheek Pouches, Food Caching, and Planning Ahead
Chipmunks have large internal cheek pouches they use like shopping bags to carry food. Many chipmunks cache (store) food, and that behavior ramps up as they prepare for winter.In kid terms: when food is easy to find, they gather extra so they’ll have enough later.
This connects beautifully to early math (counting collections, sorting, comparing full/empty etc.) and also to everyday life skills like planning and organization.
Observation, Language & “Noticing Like a Scientist”
Chipmunks are active during the day, so they’re ideal for practicing some early observational skills. Children can look for fast/slow movement, hiding spots, what they do with food, and how they react to sounds.
You can model simple scientific thinking with phrases your little learners can copy: “I noticed…,” “I wonder…,” “I think… because….” This kind of talk builds vocabulary and reasoning while still feeling like a normal conversation outside.
Did You Know?
Here are a few fun chipmunk facts to share with your little learners:
There are 25 species of chipmunk, and most live in North America – but there is also a species found across parts of Asia (the Siberian chipmunk).
A chipmunk’s home is often a burrow that can include a nest area and food storerooms.
Chipmunks eat more than just nuts, many also eat berries, seeds, and insects.
Chipmunks are part of the squirrel family.
Chipmunks can cache food in underground chambers so they can eat from their stored supplies later (including in winter).
World Chipmunk Day Printable Activities
Let’s make Chipmunk Day extra fun for your little learners. Here at Nurtured Neurons, chipmunk-themed printables are a lovely way to explore this topic.
These hands-on activities are perfect for building early skills like fine-motor control, matching, counting, sequencing, and vocabulary.
Click on the images below to grab a chipmunk-themed activity:
Other Fun Ways to Celebrate
These ideas use everyday materials and work well for classrooms and home learning.
Indoor Activities
Saving for the Winter: Put a small bowl of ‘seeds’ (pom-poms, dried beans, beads etc.) on one side of the table and an empty cup which acts as the cheek pouch on the other. Your children will need to use tweezers, tongs, or even clothespins to move the seeds one at a time. When the cup is full, they can deliver it to a different container which is their Burrow. This quietly builds hand strength and hand to eye coordination, and the patience to do one step at a time.
Build-a-Burrow: Set out some junk modeling – cardboard tubes, small boxes, paper scraps, tape, and child-safe glue etc.. Invite your little learners to design a burrow that has at least two spaces – a sleeping area and a food-storage area. What other areas could they make?
Story-in-a-Bag – “A Busy Day in the Forest”: Put several small props in a bag. These could be things that would naturally be found in the forest, such as leaves, stones, sticks etc. but also throw in a couple unusual items. You little ones will pull an item out and add it to the story: “When the chipmunk was walking through the woods, he found a strange red crystal, he used it to…”. You could also adapt it to a memory similar to ‘I went to the shop and I bought’ if you wanted.
Outdoor Activities
Scurry, Freeze and Store it: Pick two areas and call them Tree and Burrow. Between these two areas set out a load of bean bags or other items they could collect. When you call “Forage!” kids scurry around and collect the items; when you call “Hide!” they freeze; when you call “Store it!” they have to quickly take their items back to the burrow.
Chalk Burrow Map: Get your children to draw a giant ‘burrow’ with tunnels and rooms for different purposes (Sleep, Store, Hide, Snack etc.). You little learners can then use their burrow for some chipmunk-themed play!
Quiet Watch: Choose a spot and set a timer. Everyone sits and just watches what’s going on around them. Afterward, they can share one thing they noticed, and you capture it on a class “I noticed…” chart. This can really hep with listening and attention and then a bit of science-y data collection!
Ideas from Around the Web
If you’d like a few more ways to celebrate, here’s a few simple ideas from some trusted sites:
Acorn Sensory Bin – A simple acorn-themed sensory setup with an easy fine-motor twist using tongs. (Twin Mom Refreshed)
Chipmunk Feeder – simple feeder that uses only a few easy to find materials. (Rush and Ramble)
- Hibernating Chipmunk – a simple paper plate chipmunk craft idea connected to winter/burrow themes. (Tots and Me)
Simple Classroom Display & Group Activity Ideas
Here are some easy ways to bring your chipmunk theme to life in a group setting:
Cheek-Pouch Word Wall: Make a big chipmunk face with two big cheeks. Each time your children learn a new word (burrow, forage, cache, habitat), it gets “stored” in the cheeks.
Woodland Mural: I loved doing this with my classes – get a big piece of paper (or several stuck together) and lay it out in the middle of the carpet. Everyone gathers around and each child contributes something – a drawing of a plant or animal, a leaf rubbing, or torn-paper “leaf litter” etc.
Kind Wildlife Rules Poster: As a group, create a class-made poster about how to respectfully observe nature: quiet voices, give animals space, don’t touch their homes, leave nature where it is and leave the area as you found it etc.
World Chipmunk Day Reading List – Chipmunk Books to Explore Together
Books are such a great way to help your kids learn about chipmunks – here’s a few:
Chirp!: Chipmunk Sings for a Friend – Jamie Swenson
A warm story about friendship and finding your voice in a group, perfect for SEL talk with your little learners.
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes – Joseph and James Bruchac
A picture book based on a native American folktale that’s great for thinking about how things came to be as they are.
The Someone New – Jill Twiss
A story about a chipmunk who learns that new things don’t have to be scary and that the best way to make a new friend is with kindness.
Ultimate Explorer Field Guide: Mammals – National Geographic Kids – A photo-rich field guide that supports real-world observing and kid-friendly mammal facts.
Discussion Starters
These open-ended questions are great for encouraging reflection:
If you were a chipmunk, what would you store for later, and where would you hide it?
What makes a place a good habitat for an animal?
Why do you think chipmunks move fast and freeze suddenly?
What are some kind ways to watch wildlife so animals feel safe?
What changes in nature do you notice when seasons change?
World Chipmunk Day Certificate of Participation
I’ve made a little certificate you can use to help celebrate your learners’ efforts with a cheerful keepsake! I’ve kept it simple as I know too well how time consuming writing the dates and signing a class worth or certificates can be…
Click the button below to download and print a World Chipmunk Day Certificate of Participation:
World Chipmunk Day Day Final Thoughts
World Chipmunk Day is a lovely reminder that nature learning doesn’t have to be too complicated. A little observing can really help your children feel connected to the world right outside their door.
Did your little learners enjoy World Chipmunk Day? If you tried an activity (or spotted a real chipmunk!), share what you did in the comments- I’d love to hear your best “chipmunk moments.”
Enjoy!
And if you want to see what other special days are coming up soon – as well as grab a few choice activities – you can check out our Special Day Calendar here.
