St. Paddy's Day Fun!

Hope everyone had a fun St. Paddy's day!  My class sure did.  We tried our best to catch a leprechaun, but those rascally little fellows are so darn tricky!  This year my kiddos made their traps at home for a  homework project.  Wow!  They were awesome!  I think I will do it this way every year.  It gave them a over a week to think about a design and gather materials.  Doing this project in the classroom is fun, but we are limited to the resources on hand.  Here are some of the masterpieces that came in to our classroom this year...

Super cute!  The basket falls down to trap them.  Looks like he caught some gold!

Love the rainbow, the pot of gold,  and all the GLITTER!  Woo hoo!

Ahh, yes!  The ladder climbing into the hat.  And of course, those little fellows will completely ignore the sign.  They love to make mischief!

Very clever!  It almost looks like a play structure.  Down at the end of the ramp is a paper that covers the hole of the last TP tube.  I love this design!

Can you see the ring in the photo?  The leprechaun will reach up to grab it and then a fence made of sticks and string will fall down and trap him inside the box.  Got ya!

Oh my goodness!  Sparkles, shine, and glitter galore!  I love the sparkly pipe cleaner rainbow.  Don't know if you can see, but those are tiny gold coins scattered at the entrance.  Super cute!



We had so much fun reading books and talking about leprechauns!  We did a few other fun projects too.  I had seen this idea on Pinterest, of course, here is the pin: sight word rainbow.  This was actually a little tedious for some of my students.  So, after all the hard work, I thought we should use them for an art project.  They are really sweet:

And of course we did lots of writing!

(I would make him take me to his pot of gold!)

(I will keep him forever.)

(They are real.  They left coins at my house.)

(Yes, they are real because they left green glitter.)

All my students believed in leprechauns this year.  Not a skeptic in the bunch.  I was a little disappointed by that, but I shouldn't be surprised.   I love this writing prompt, though, because it is one they are passionate about and I always make sure there is evidence for them to  use in their thinking!  

Do you need some sweet practice pages to supplement your St. Patrick's Day activities in your classroom?  Look no further.  These pages are perfect for March in a kindergarten classroom and they have cute St. Paddy's graphics.  You can find it here: Print and Go! St. Patrick's Day Math and Literacy (NO PREP). Here's a little preview:

OK, here is your freebie.  If you would like to have your class make leprechaun traps for a homework project, this is what I sent home to families.  I wrote in the due date and signed it at the bottom before I made copies.  Have fun!

And this is the writing page that the kiddos complete to show their thinking:

Just click on either image above to get them for FREE!  May the luck o' the Irish be with you!
Happy Teaching!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We had a fun week of Dr. Seuss activities.  It kicked off with Read Across America day.  We had lots of great folks reading favorite stories to my class and a cozy pajama day in the classroom.  We made the hats to celebrate.  We did lots of work on chunks, rhymes, and word families.  The kiddos also painted the Cat in the Hat.  I did not model this because I wanted to see their completely "KID" interpretation of the character.  OMGoodnes!  They are so darn cute!

I also had them write about the cat right after I read the book.  I am always so happy with their responses to the prompt:  What would you do if the Cat in the Hat came over to your house?  What do you think would happen?  Would you tell your mom?

(I would hide so he couldn't see me.  I would tell my mom.)

(I would slam the door on him.  I would tell my mom.)

(I would call the cops.  I would tell my mom.)

After all these years, I still like Dr. Seuss.  It was a fun week at school!  I think the best thing is how motivated to READ my students became.  There were kids in our class library reading Dr. Seuss books during choice time every day!  Woo hoo!

Happy Teaching!

Ice Cream Sorts!

I wanted my kiddos to practice addition facts.  Many also needed fine motor practice.  And.... I am really needing to differentiate this year!  So I made this for my class and I am sharing it with you.  I have had to take quite a few sub days this year for school business and this was a perfect activity for my sub!

If you need this set for your classroom, you can get it by clicking on the image below.

Happy Teaching!