St. Patrick's Day Fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays and unfortunately this year I don't get to celebrate it. At my school we are having an "All Cultures Week," and every minute of every day is already planned out for us leaving no day for St. Paddy's Day Fun :-( But as I was looking back on the special Leprechaun day of years past I found some of my favorite ideas and pictures and wanted to share them! At least I can remember the fun I've had with my students on this day!

Two years ago I put together this reading and math St. Patrick's Day packet. It includes nonsense words, writing activities, and many different types of math activities to make St. Patrick's Day that much more fun! And to top it off it's FREE!!! You can find it by clicking here. I hope you enjoy it as much as much kids have in the past!

Another activity I love to do with my kids around this time of year is Leprechaun art. First, I have them draw their Leprechauns using pencil (and then I recommend you have them go over it with a permanent marker) and then they use watercolor paint to finish them off. They look so cute once they're cut out and hung around the room. Check out the photos below!

Another activity I enjoy doing is called, "If I were a Leprechaun." First, I spend about a week reading different St. Patrick's Day and Leprechaun Books. Some of my favorite books to read to them are:

That's What Leprechauns Do

Ten Lucky Leprechauns

Jack and the Leprechaun

After reading each of the books we talk about what the Leprechaun in the story did and create a chart of Leprechaun characteristics. It's one of my favorite activities. After we come up with all of the characteristics of Leprechauns then we talk about specific things they do such as hiding their gold at the end of a rainbow, playing tricks on those that are searching for their gold. 

Once we've talked about what Leprechauns do then the children get to turn themselves into Leprechauns and write about what they would do. It's a great writing activity!

To download the printable version of this activity just click here. Again, this activity is FREE and I truly hope that you enjoy it! Have a wonderful, hopefully full of surprises, St. Patrick's Day! 

More Dr. Seuss!

I was going through an old post and found a few more Dr. Seuss "blasts-from-the-past"! I thought I would post them here in case anyone is interested for this next week and please share any other Dr. Seuss ideas you have so I can be sure to make the week with my students even better {and remember I'm not doing this until April so I have plenty of time}! 

This one obviously goes with Dr. Seuss' book "10 Apples Up On Top!" I just wish I could have fit the apples into one line but it just didn't work out. Still I think they turned out pretty cute!

This activity can be adapted in many different ways. In my classroom we used this all year but it could also work for just a week. Instead of having the children read 35 books {like I had them do during the year} you could have them read 2-5 books {depending on grade level...} and then have them color in the egg and bring it back for Dr. Seuss week. We read the book "Horton Hatches and Egg" first obviously, then discussed the reading challenge, and I sent home an egg and a note to each of the parents requesting their help. This photo is from the beginning of the year so we didn't have many yet but by the end I had about 30 eggs under Horton and it was amazing to see. 

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend! Have a wonderful Dr. Seuss week!