I am student teaching in kindergarten and want to do something fun for March 17. I have access to enchanted learning but wanted to know if someone out there has something different to do. Any ideas will be appreciated!
I have a little leprechaun doll that mysteriously moves around the room several times a day...he leaves notes and vanishes on the 17th in time to get back to Ireland for the holiday. He leaves behind treats for the kids...last year Bells of Ireland seeds... You could have kids build leprechaun traps Graph the charms in zip bags of Lucky Charms cereal
We make leprechaun ladders a few days before... they are made from pieces of straws and construction paper shamrocks. We hang them around the room and any slight breeze makes them move - a leprechaun on the ladder! The kids LOVE them and so do I! Oh - I also always put a little green food coloring in the toilets on St. Patricks day.
The art center will be cutting out shamrocks and mixing yellow and blue to make green. They will have the choice of using their hands or a paintbrush. This week: We will write about what we would wish for if we caught a leprechaun We are making pots of gold with corn pops A leprechaun always comes to visit us on the 17th and messes up our classroom and leaves a note on the easel. He leaves gold dust behind!
I love St. Patrick's Day! I send home a letter with instructions/suggestions on building traps; it's totally optional, but usually have a good response. Each child explains his/her trap then picks a place in the room for it to stay till March 17th. Of course, they check it every morning. They usually find "leprechaun dust" (metallic confetti) around their trap, which means that there had been a leprechaun there. Of course our room & traps are visited by the leprechaun who turns things over, etc. I cut several leprechauns (we have an Ellison cutter) out of green laminated const. paper. At some point every child gets one of these "leprechaun shadows" I have a paper typed up with the story of a leprechaun shadow. I made it up, but it basically says that if you get a leprechaun shadow, it means a leprechaun was there (in your trap, in your chair, etc.) for more than 2 minutes & whoever gets one will have a good day. We make leprechaun pie using pistachio pudding. I take it out of the box & tell them it's vanilla & we're going to add green food coloring. Amazingly, when we add the milk, it turns green w/o the food coloring. On March 18th, we arrive to find a note from Lucky the Leprechaun who tells us he is going back to Ireland. He leaves us some type of treats (candy). When we pass out the candy, we discover a tiny hammer in the bottom of the dish-Lucky has forgotten it, so we know he will return next year. I've also made leprechaun finders-we painted paper towel rolls gold & put green Saran Wrap on one end. String yarn through so they can hang around their necks. I've also made "baby" green footprints with the edge of my hand & fingers all dipped in green tempra.
That is sooo cool! My kids would be asking to go the restroom much more frequently to see it, I'm sure. We're on Spring Break for the "holiday" this year so we won't get to play. Boo!
kindercowgirl your leprechaun would know you were out early and would visit you early don't you think? Perhaps you could write to him, and tell him of your schedualing issues.......perhaps he stops there (as you are a costal state) on his journey inland? What does border patrol do when confronted with magical tiny beings? And green water in the toliets is always a hit.
The instructions for the traps come from "The Pocket Book" I don't know if that even exists anymore. I would be happy to mail you a copy of it and my directions if you want. You could pm me your name (maybe A. Smith) & your school address. If you want I will mail you a copy of the instructions, the page I send with it to my parents, a copy of the leprechaun shadow & the letter "Lucky" leaves my class. I did google leprechaun traps & some things came up, so you could also try that.
There are some great youtube videos of children demonstrating their trap ideas. They really inspire my class each year. We make shape books (shamrock) and fill the word wall with St. Patrick's Day words...rainbow, pot of gold, leprechaun, shamrock, Irish flag, etc.
We always do the "magic powder" (pistachio pudding) and Leprechaun bread. Each child get a slice of white bread and a blob of softened butter/margarine to spread with a plastic knife. We then sprinkle green sugar all over it and they use their knives to cut it into tiny, leprechaun -sized pieces-then eat it. It is very easy and the children love it!
My SLP is only in my class on Wednesday, so our leprechaun is visiting a bit early for that class.... I think he's going to "steal" the names out of our job chart and hide them in another classroom... the kids are going to have to go find them and ask questions (have you seen our name cards?") and tell where they found them (under, on top of, next to...). He may also steal our chairs, but they might magically be back when we return from our hunt
We make "leprechaun wands." The kids glue a shamrock to a craft stick and add gold glitter (we do this the day before so they can dry). I tell them that leprechauns LOVE gold, so we're going to go on a leprechaun hunt and shake our wands. Little pieces of glitter will fall off, and the leprechaun might come out. As we're walking around the school, one of the secretaries messes up my room and sprinkles a bit of gold glitter. She leaves a note from the leprechaun explaining that we'll never catch him, but he does leave us a pot of chocolate gold coins. The kids go CRAZY when we returned to the trashed room. A few don't buy it, but most do. It's a blast!
Awww this makes me want to teach kindergarten. For my 3rd graders we always die carnations green. I just put a little food coloring in the water and over a few days they change to green. It's a neat way for kids to see how plants get water. I let them take the flowers home on St. Patrick's day.
There are A LOT of great ideas on here. I am having a hard time choosing which ones to use! I am going to save this thread for the future. I like ideas that can be incorporated into lesson plans such as green food coloring and carnations. However, I also like "just fun" activities such as leaving the room and having a leprechaun mess up the room. Thank you all for sharing, and everyone have fun.
A leprechaun always comes to visit us on the 17th and messes up our classroom and leaves a note on the easel. He leaves gold dust behind![/QUOTE] He visits our room, too! He turns over chairs, takes the green crayons out of the pencil boxes and leaves them on the table, leaves green blown-up balloons on the floor, silly strings the room with green, and leaves a little green trinket and a green beaded necklace for each kid--like you get for 10-25 cents each at Party City. He leaves a green message on the white board. Then, the kids write a "Dear Leprechaun" letter to tell him how they liked his pranks!
thanks for the ideas everyone..I too have been wondering what to do for St. Patrick's Day..and it falls at a perfect time...I get evaluated the 16th, and our school Math Day is the 18th...so it's a perfect time to do some fun activities to end out the week before spring break...5 more days!!!
There's so much great Irish music out there that doesn't involve drinking or even politics. I bet your kids would be thrilled to learn a bit about bagpipes, the accordian, or the harp! Or a lesson on the Blarney Stone. Here are some more traditional choices: http://www.edhelper.com/st_patricks_day.htm
