Celebrating St. Pat’s Day!

The Irish in me is ALL.OVER St. Patty’s Day!!  I LOVE IT!!!  I especially love celebrating it with the kids!  I don’t have many pictures to show you, but with St. Pat’s right around the corner, I just wanted to share a few things I’ve done in the past to make it fun for the kids!

Here’s a fun little writing we did today.  This is one of my favorites!!

ETA:  You can find the patterns HERE:http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2011/03/leprechaun-pattern.html

First we read this book…

Then we talked about luck and feeling lucky.  Afterwards, I had the kids write about what makes them feel lucky using the prompt, “I feel lucky when…”.  I got some darling responses!  After they were finished writing, they created a little “loopy leprechaun”.  FUN!

When I taught Kindergarten, I told the kids there was a “wee little Leprechaun” hanging out in our school and he was watching for outstanding behavior.  Those cuties fell for it.  Hook, line, & sinker!    For about a week before Spring Break, I’d leave little clues that the leprechaun had visited our classroom.  I’d turn over chairs, sprinkle green glitter on the floor and desks, put things where they didn’t belong…that leprechaun was really mischievous!!  On the Friday before Spring Break, I really went wacky…chairs on desks, painted/stamped “footprints” (made using the side of my fist & fingerprints) all over the place, sprinkled gold nuggets all over the desks and floor, and left little surprises for all the kids {all while the kids were at Specials}.  When the kids came back in the room, I pretended to be “SO SAD” and upset and would ask them why they would destroy my room {just imagine a VERY dramatic K teacher right about now.}  That really sold it!  HA!   

I made the gold nuggets myself…just spray painted garbanzo beans GOLD.  My kids truly believed they were real!  I just LOVE that innocence! 

We used the nuggets for fun math activities, too!  Since the nuggets were casually sprinkled all over the room, I had the kids count what they collected and compare it to how many their classmates collected.  We made a huge class graph on a big black pot to chart the number of gold nuggets we collected.  I paired the kids up and had them add their nuggets together and then create number sentences on little pot of gold templates {wish I still had that printable!!}  I also had them use their nuggets for a little non-standard measurement activity. 

I found the cutest little plastic bags at Hobby Lobby one year.  They were pretty small and on sale for 10cents a pack {about 30 in a pack!!}  I bought A TON of them and still have lots leftover!  Anyway, I filled those bags with Lucky Charms and a gold chocolate coin and left them on the kids’ desks.  They LOVED it!! 

I had the kids make Leprechaun traps one year for a family project and bring them to school so that we could try and catch the leprechaun.  There were some ADORABLE traps!!  We set them out all over the room and checked them each time we came back from being out.

On the Friday before Spring Break, the leprechaun would also leave a baggie full of “magic powder”.  The leprechaun left instructions to mix the powder with 2 cups of milk for a “green surprise”.  So we mixed and mixed and ended up with {green}pistachio pudding!  Then I scooped some out for each of my kiddos and had them taste it.  Most of them usually liked it, but they were totally weirded out by the pistachio bits {I told them they were lucky leprechaun nuggets}.  Then we graphed the results of the taste test. 

While I know these fun little things aren’t necessarily academic, they didn’t take any time at all and they were SO much fun for the kids!  It made for some awesome discussion and led into some really great journal writing opportunities. 

How do you celebrate St. Patty’s Day?!?