St. Patrick's Day is always exciting! I was feeling a little blue because I wasn't able to fit in all of the fun activities we usually do when our themes last for more than a week. I don't think the kids noticed, though. There was plenty to keep them busily having fun and learning in our classroom this week.
They created various types of leprechauns throughout the week. Some friends made paper bag puppet leprechauns, some made "Shamrock People" leprechauns and others made leprechaun faces from paper plates.
These Shamrock People turned out really cute, especially "Angry Leprechaun Guy"!!! They really made for some fun decorations to hang on our walls and bulletin boards.
There were learning games going on everywhere. This is a little board game was copied from a teacher book and laminated. We use classroom materials for playing pieces.
This is a shamrock pattern matching game with bottle caps.
In one of our small groups, my assistant played this shamrock letter matching game with the kids.
We made Fruit Loop necklaces. They are as much fun to wear as they are to eat!
(Yeah, you guessed it, we were playing with our food again! ;)
One of the classes made these cute hats. They hung them from the ceiling during the week, then wore them at their party!
Some of the after~schoolers shared their St. Patrick's Day spirit!
We went on a leprechaun hunt all over the school. At the end, he left us a colorful rainbow to eat and a few gold coins.
He also left us this little surprise in our bathrooms, just to let us know that we missed him! He promised to come back next year. Maybe our luck will be a little better! I keep thinking of all the wonderful classroom materials I could get, if I just had that pot of gold!
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We've been gearing up for St. Patrick's Day, getting our bulletin boards ready to display all the wonderful masterpieces the kids have been coming up with. I often use the caption "Pre-K Lucky Charms" or "Mrs. Ayn's Lucky Charms" but since a few other classes went with that this year before I got my caption up, we went with "Pre-K is magically Delicious!".
We added a few tie-dyed coffee filter and collage art shamrocks for detail. Some of the children were folding coffee filters and using watercolors to paint them. Others used markers to color the coffee filters and then sprayed them with a water bottle. This has become quite a popular activity in art area ever since the introduction of the marker/spray bottle technique was introduced. I'm sure it has more to do with the fun factor of using the water bottle than the final effect, but either way, they do come out pretty! After the filters had dried, I cut some of them into the shamrock shape. (We tried to let the kids do it, but the filters don't cut very well with kids scissors.)
Also available in our art center is a wide variety of collage materials and some shamrock cut outs. Since our kids LOVE glue, this is another popular art activity.
This is our door decoration.
I frequently visit other classrooms and see what they are up to. Here are some of the bulletin boards that other teachers in our center have up for St. Patrick's Day.
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We've been making shamrock prints with green peppers and green paint in our art center this week. The one year old class used these peppers one day, and brought them down to us when they'd finished. There was plenty of printing life left in them, so we put them in our art center. It's been a lot of fun, as well as a great sensory activity!
Some of the kids explored with the paint and used the pepper like brush, painting the entire paper, making lines and swirls in their paint designs. Anything goes~ explore and have fun!
I left the green peppers for the after-school class to explore with later that afternoon. This was one of the pretty designs I found drying on the counter the next day!
Pepper shamrock printing has made the rounds at our school, and has been a BIG hit with every age group that has tried it!
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Some days on the playground are a frenzy of activity. Hula hoops, baseball, football, trikes, swings, running, chasing....you get the picture. Today was the first day of Daylight Savings Time, and we were all dragging just a little today. The weather forecast predicts rain for most of the week, and we'll probably be stuck inside. We cut our indoor center time a little short today and went out a little early. It was beautiful out~ 70's and party cloudy.
When we first went out, the kids noticed this art work hanging on the fence. We had to go check it out! Earlier this morning, a sneaky little leprechaun crept into our room and took out some toys and rearranged our chairs. Initially, the children wanted to make sure this painting wasn't more the leprechauns' shenanigans. By the time we'd reached the top of the hill, the children were sure they'd seen leprechaun movement in the woods.
Can you spot the leprechaun?
"Yeah, we should all come out here with our camouflage clothes. If we were really still, then they might not see us and come out." "Yeah, that's how you do it when you deer hunt. I know, 'cause I go hunting!"
(I hope, for the leprechaun's sake, that he is a fast little dude! I don't think I'd want to get caught by this crowd!)
As I walked around today, I did see some of the typical, very active play, but also noticed several pockets of kids playing relatively quietly.
This group just sat at the top of the jungle gym, having a very riveting conversation.
This group moved the chairs into the sandbox and made a movie theater. They sat for a while as if there were a movie playing on some imaginary screen and talked a lot about movies they either wanted to see or had seen.
"These are my meatballs!"
"I'm making a cake!"
There was a lot of "cake making" going on in various corners of the playground.
This is a "surprise cake" because "when you eat it, you find out there is a big green truck under there and it's a surprise!"
While one of the friends and I strolled around the playground, we found this heart leaf. What a special find!
My favorite moment of the day was walking up on this scene:
"This how you get a 'skin tan' !"
"Dads get a 'skin tan' by sitting in chairs like this."
Me: "So, you guys are just hanging out?"
"Yeah, we're chill like that!"
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