St. Patrick's Day Fun

My St. Patrick's Day unit runs a week or two depending on the interest of the children.  Here are some poems and ideas that I hope you like and can use.

Oh, have you seen a leprechaun,
A leprechaun,
a leprechaun,
Oh have you seen a leprechaun,
Who comes from Ireland?

Among the shamrocks he may hide,
he may hide,
he may hide.
Among the shamrocks he may hide,
so catch him if you can.

I'm a little leprechaun dressed in green.
The tiniest man that you've ever seen.
If you ever catch me, so it's told.
I'll give you my pot of gold!

When I print this poem on the chart for the kids, I cover the word gold with gold glitter.

Sung to I'm a Little Teapot

Sung to The Muffin Man

There was a little leprechaun
Whose home was in a tree.
He met a giant in the park
And asked her home to tea.
They walked inside the tiny house
The giant broke the door!
She stood tall and smashed the roof.
Her feet crashed through the floor.
The giant stopped.
"Oh what a mess!I'm very sorry!" she cried.
"That's quite all right'" said the leprechaun
"We'll drink our tea outside."

I teach the kids this poem, and we also do it on the flannel board.  I have pieces of the leprechaun, a tree, a tea set, a broken door, and a big girl.   The kids love acting it out.  We also act it out as a group using appropriate motions.

These poems go with the month of March, but not leprechauns.

Have you ever seen a lizard
A lizard
A lizard
Have you ever seen a lizard
All dressed up in green?

With green eyes and a green nose
And green legs and green toes?

Have you ever seen a lizard
All dressed up in green?

A lion is big and very strong.  It has a tail that's very long!
A lion can roar in a great big way.
I feel like a lion today!

When I put this song in a chart, I always print the word green with a green marker.

A lamb is small and soft and sweet.
It has a tail that's short and neat.
A lamb can bleat in a quiet way.
I feel like a lamb today.

Tune:  Have you ever seen a Lassie

Math Activities

The first thing I do is spray paint 3 bags of lima beans gold.I use these for various math activities.  One thing we do is measure things around the room with the "gold."  We measure what ever the kids want...crayons, markers, and sometimes each other, and that's A LOT of counting!  I have a container of these in the Math Center, so the kids can measure whenever they want to. 

I also use the gold to introduce the concept of AREA.  The recording sheet to the left is what the kids use.  As you can see, there are different sized pots.  The kids fill up each pot to find the area.  Hopefully, they will notice that the bigger the pot, the more gold they use! The children can write the number of gold pieces on the recording sheet next to each pot.

For this activity, I laminate a bunch of shamrocks and draw a line down the center.  I print go in green on the left and stop in red on the right.  We use different math manipulatives to measure the width.  We use plastic links, unifix cubes, the "gold" beans, and whatever we want to use that day.  Sometimes I make recording sheets for the kids and put them in the center with them, and sometimes I send the shamrock and different manipulatives home for measuring homework.  I like the go and stop because it helps the kids go from left to right, and it also shows EXACTLY where they should measure.

I fill up flat trays with green, plastic flakes and add the "gold" beans.  I let the kids dig for gold.  I  turn this into a math activity by having the kids roll dice and finding that many "gold"pieces.  It's fun just to make this a sensory experience and let them sift through the flakes for the "gold."  If you do not have flakes, you could dye rice green and use that instead.

Another math activity is to give the kids a recording sheet that looks like this...  There is a line at the top for the child's name.  Under the line is a picture of a black leprechaun pot, then a plus sign, then another pot, then an equals sign, and then a short blank line.  Each child takes a sheet, then a dice, and a hand full of "gold."  The child rolls the die, puts that many pieces of "gold" on the first pot, rolls again and puts that many pieces on the second pot.  Then the child adds up all the "gold" and prints the number on the short line.  I have about 4 addition problems on the paper.  I have also laminated the recording sheets and used vis a vis markers so we can use the same sheets over and over.

Fun Stuff

After the leprechaun has visited our room for a few days, we go hunting  around the school for him.  In the meantime, a mom helper gets this plastic pot (leftover from Halloween) and gets it filled with "GOLD."  The gold is the first picture, which is actually fish tank gravel that I spray painted gold.   When we come back from our search, we  get a book called WEE LITTLE PATRICK, (see next picture for details) and then we find out that  the leprechaun has left us a gift outside our door!  It's the pot filled with gold.  Every child gets a small scoop of "gold" to take home.  

One year the leprechaun left us baked potatoes!!!!  Yum!  We each got a potatoe and got to choose toppings--cheese, butter, sour cream--then we graphed what toppings we used!

Wee Little Patrick is the book that  the leprechaun  leaves us.The words go like this...

Patrick is a leprechaun, he has a sack of gold.
He hides it in a special place, between 2 stumps I'm told.
Patrick comes but once a year, to have some fun and play.
He's never mean, he just plays tricks, 'cuz it's his special day!
I think I once saw Patrick, out in the woods at play.
He smild, laughed, and winked his eye, and then he ran away!
Everyone tries  to follow Patrick, to find his treasure sack.
Somehow he always gets away!
Don't worry, he'll be back!

This book is a nice way to send Patrick on his way back to Ireland!

We also make rice rainbows!  I dye rice 6 different colors and give the kids an outline of a rainbow.  The kids put on the glue, dump on the rice, and add cotton balls for clouds.  They turn out really pretty!  I used to do this for letter "R" when I taught letter of the week, but now I use it for my March unit.

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