St. Patrick's Day

Oh, those pesky leprechauns visited our classroom at recess and when the kids returned there were some tubs of toys tipped over, papers scattered across a table and little green footprints on the whiteboard. As the kids helped me clean up after those sneaky leprechauns we found a note written in green ink. It turned out to be the first clue in a treasure hunt. We read the note, which told us to look on top of the big closet. There we found a shamrock with another message. Each message led us to another hiding place in our classroom. The final note led to a treasure chest full of gold-wrapped coins. We shared the coins as we colored a rainbow (with the colors in the right order, of course). Then we all drew a picture of what we though the leprechaun looked like. We put the pictures together in a book with a caption for each - "Dustin thought a leprechaun looked like this." "This is Chelsea's leprechaun." etc.

Finally, we played a game called Huckle Buckle Beanstalk. One person hides a small leprechaun (I have a 2" plastic one, but paper would do) somewhere in the room. It has to be in plain sight without having to move anything to see it. But, it can be HARD to see, such as on the top of a bulletin board or near some other green things. The rest of the class waits in the hall until the leprechaun is hidden, then comes back in and begins to hunt with their eyes only. To begin I have them put their hands behind their backs so they aren't tempted to touch anything. Since the leprechaun is in plain sight they don't have to move anything to see it, right? Now comes the hard part. When someone sees the leprechaun they don't pick it up. They sneak to the circle area and sit down. Then they call out "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk". The game continues until most or all of the kids have seen the leprechaun and have come to the circle. Then the first child to see it gets to go pick it up and hide it for the next round. Impulsive kids have to be warned about grabbing the leprechaun and it helps to hide it up high for a couple of rounds until they get the hang of it. I've played this game with kindergarteners and first graders. It would also probably work with older students.

I sparay paint rocks gold and we use it for counting, sorting,weighing, etc... We graph the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal. We build Leprechaun traps in hopes of catching the leprechaun who visits our room and makes a mess while we are away. We never catch him but he leaves us shamrock cookies or gold coin candy! Other ideas are making rainbows and having the children dictate to you or write what they would like to find at the end of their rainbow. Turn into a class book. Use a black pot to hold sight words, letters, rhyming words, etc.. programmed onto gold coin shapes and let each child pull one out and read or match to ones in a pocket chart etc.. Search for four leaf clover. Make irish stew or some other irish dish. Drink green kool- aid or make green jello. Hope these are helpful!

I give each student a shamrock tracer and a piece of 9x12 white drawing paper. They trace around the shamrock and fill their paper, turning the shamrock in different directions each time they trace. Then they fill the inside of each shamrock with different designs using different shades of green crayons. lastly, they outline each shamrock with a green marker. When you hang them on the wall next to each other you get a very colorful quilt-like design. It's very striking!

I had the students color in a rainbow on 11x17 paper, then cut it out. Then we sorted Lucky Charm marshmallows into color groupings and glued them onto the rainbow (only about 6-8 per color of the rainbow though, otherwise it gets too heavy). Then we colored in pots of gold and wrote a little poem about what we were wishing for if we found a pot of gold and glued the poem into the the centre of the pot.

The students really enjoyed sorted the cereal (and munching a little too!) and it turned out very cute.

I usually try and do something different every year, but I plan to do this one again as it went over so well. I bought a huge Costco box of cereal so I had enough for everyone....then my poor children had to eat marshmallow-less Lucky Charms for the next month!

I do this activity each year with my first graders and they LOVE it. Just before St. Patrick's Day I give each child a styrofoam cup and have them decorate the outside of the cup with crayons. I instruct them to completely color the outside of the cup with bright colors that will attract leprechauns. With a permanent marker I write each child's number (or name) on the outside bottom of the cup. Now we have official 'leprechuan traps'. The children set them on their desks before they go home on March 16.

I collect the cups and bring them home that evening. I put them in a preheated oven (drinking side down) onto a cookie sheet for about 1 minute at 300 degrees --- watch them very closely...they shrink quickly. When the cups shrink, the brim of the cups curl up and you are left with tiny 'leprechaun hats'. They are absolutely adorable. The next morning I place them on the children's desk along with mini-cookies. What a wonderful surprise on St. Patrick's Day morning!

First of all, I love the lucky charms idea!! That is the absolute cutest!!! I do a board for march that includes a family project. I send home a white construction paper cut-out of a Leprachaun's face with hat. I ask the parents to work together with the child to decorate the leprachaun. They can use Anything to decorate it, and I ask them to be very creative. It is so neat to see the way each family chooses to decorate them. I display them on my B.Board, and ask each child, if they could catch a leprachaun, what is one thing that they would wish for?? It is so cute to see what they would wish for! Last year, one boy wished for "all the yucky green foods to be disappeared!" Very cute! And I make sure to write it just as they say it!! It adds to the board so much!

I do a few things . .

On St Patty's day when the kids are at a special I 'mess up' the room - and leave a crypted note on the from the leprechaun. It says something like, "Wheres Me Gold?" The kids LOVE the idea that a magical creature was in our class.

THen we discover that the leprachaun has left some 'magic' powder. This is Pistacio instant pudding mix. I take a tablespoon or so and put it in a zip lock bag for each child - add a bit of milk and have the kids shake it. Ta Dah - GREEN pudding! They love that too. The dry pudding is white so when you add the milk it is rather 'magical'

I also have them a few weeks prior decorate a GREEN paper cup with a face. They can draw it or glue on features. Then we fill it with soil and plant RYE grass. By the time St Patty's is here the grass has grown ALOT. Then at the party, each child has to give their leprachaun a 'hair cut" it is VERY cute and alot of fun.

THen the last thing we do is to string noodles and Shamrocks. I dye Ziti noodles with food coloring and alcohol to ge bright green and orange - colors of Ireland. Then I have already cut out small shamrocks. The kids are then asked to string the noodles and shamrocks onto a sting. I then hang those in the room. They are about 2-3 feet long. They are cute and no two are the same.

I hope this helps. - questions? e-mail me

Blessings
Kim

Here is one I used to do with my 1st graders- (I now teach 4th).

Trace a shamrock, about the size that would fit on a 9 x 12 white construction paper.

Have MANY small squares of different colors/shades of green, about one inch square.

Children glue the squares onto the shamrock shape, to create the mosiac effect.

After glue dries- cut out the shamrocks.

I always put their shamrocks up on a b-board with this little poem-

St. Patricks day is with us,
A day when all that's seen,
To right, to left,
And everywhere is
Green, green, green!

Of course, you must add a leprechaun to the whole thing! Good luck!

We made a huge writing display for the hallway. At one end was a pot and coming out of the pot was 4 different colored banners in the shape of a rainbow.

Each color was a list of different types of words
Red--list of nouns
Green--verbs
Blue-adjectives
yellow-adverbs

The idea was to make the rainbow long enough to cover the wall between two classrooms. The kids had a great time squeezing in one more word on the banner.

Tara, I teach first grade and last year we did two very special things for St. Patrick's Day.
First, I gave each child a strip of paper printed with the face of a leprechaun which the children colored and cut out. I taped the faces to the outside of 5 ounce plastic Solo cups (I used beige)and then I filled each cup with soil and gave each child a handful of "magic seeds" which in reality was quick growing rye grass seed! Well, they sprinkled their seeds onto the soil in their leprechaun cup and worked them lightly into the soil. We watered them daily and placed them on a sunny shelf. Within five days....our leprechauns grew hair --- green hair! Just before taking the leprechaun cups home on St. Patrick's Day, the children gave their leprechauns a haircut....the children loved it. I sent the cups home in plastic sandwich bags to avoid any mess.

Secondly, I had each child color the outside of an 8 or 9 ounce styrofoam coffee cup with bright colors (heavy on the green!). I told the children these were going to become our leprechaun traps. Well, that evening I took all the cups home and placed them on a cookie sheet (open side down) in a 300 oven for about 4 minutes --- be sure to check the cups are not overheating and melting. Well, the cups shrink down and the open side curls up and makes a small brim -- woila......tiny little leprechaun hats!!!! I placed these on the children's desk in the morning and placed a few mini oreos in each one .....the children were sooooo excited.

I hope this helps...have a great St. Patrick's Day.

We are going to be making leprechauns, but instead of doing the St. Patrick's Day theme with them, we are going to write pieces for "I'm Lucky to be in _________ School". The students will brainstorm things that they like about our classroom/school and describe them. You can do the lucky theme with another topic, if you want. We have also made leprechauns by folding a sheet of 12 X18 construction paper into 8 boxes. If you cut off the first box in the second row and the last box in the second row and glue them to the first row, these become the sleeves. Then, they fold in and you can cut the bottom row into pants by making a "V" slit in the middle.Add a paper plate head and a cotton beard. Students can write limericks. The limericks are glued inside the folded arms. This "8 box" technique works well for book characters, self-portraits, etc. We also have made spring bulletin boards by making vases out of wallpaper and dipping white paint in Q-Tips for pussy willows, or using puffed wheat for them and wadded up yellow tissue paper for forsythia. Students can then write haikus about spring or cinquains. Hope this helps you!

There's room for a nice fairy tale about leprechauns and pots of gold here, and there are some great print out and color in pictures on the web for that too. Making green carboard hats or searching the classroom for a pot of gold you have hidden (with chocolate coins in?) is fun too.

If you are looking for something more realistic you could tell a short tale about the people coming to America on the pilgrim ships to have a better life, and there are a lot of ship pictures to color too.

There are also tales about St. Patrick of course.

Lucky clover cookies are fun. If your class isn't too big you can make some at home and bring them in. The kids will have fun icing them.

There's bound to be a way to incorporate a violin or a tin whistle if you're more musically minded. Even tiny kids have great fun with whistles.

All I can think of for now.. good luck!