"Wearin' of the Green"

Tomorrow is good ole St. Patrick's Day. Since we won't be at school, we had our celebration today. St. Patrick's day activities fill our day with lots to do. I have renamed this day "cereal day" at school.

Our craft activity was to make rainbows with gold at the ends. To do this I give the children a rainbow pattern glued to a black piece of paper. They then glue Fruit Loops to the rainbow pattern for color. Then at the end of the rainbow, they glue some Corn Pops for "gold." Last year when we did this most of the children finished their rainbows. This year I think they were a bit more engaged in the fun they were having with other activities. The rainbows still look cute.

I also have a Lucky Charm sorting activity. I pour Lucky Charms onto a tray. Then I have taken some small paper plates and drawn the marshmallow shapes on them. The children sort through the cereal and try to match the shapes on the plate. Then comes the best part--they eat them!

A new activity I had this year was to have a table with folded green squares and a half heart template. I showed the children how to trace the template against the fold and then cut out a heart. When they cut out three hearts, they could make a shamrock with the hearts. If they wanted they could cut out four hearts to make a four leaf clover. This activity was monitored by Mrs. R as it is brand new--tracing, cutting, and gluing. Plus the tracing was specific. She mostly made sure they put the template up to the fold and kept he paper folded as they cut. They did pretty well with this.

I had also put out the ever popular green rice and split pea sensory tub. They enjoy this immensely.

Final added fun was a hide and seek shamrock game. A crafty little leprechaun hid some shamrocks around the room and we got to go find them. This game was very exciting for them. Good thing it was time to go when we were done:).

Our snack providers sent in some great cupcakes today. Our AM class had shamrock cupcakes. They were adorable. I'm sorry I don't have a picture (I forgot), plus I don't even know how she got the cupcakes molded like a shamrock. Oh, and homemade icing too--DEEElicious.

The PM class also had St. Patrick's Day inspired cupcakes. It was also Patrick's birthday, hmm I wonder why his name is Patrick? These cupcakes looked like they had a leprechaun's hat on top. She had taken a cupcake, iced it with green, put a vanilla wafer in the middle, covered that with green icing, then placed a marshmallow on top of the wafer and covered that with green icing. The final touch was to add a black rim and gold decoration with icing. These, of course, were just as delicious as the AM cupcakes. (How is one ever supposed to stay thin?)

I hope you all enjoy your St. Patrick's Day fun with the little ones in your life.

UPDATE: I had made the green rice and had gotten the idea from Teaching Tiny Tots which is no more. The blog, I think, has a new name but I'm not sure of it.

To make the rice I poured white rice in a Ziploc bag. I then poured in a bottle of green food coloring. Mix the rice around until it is all covered. Then spread on a flat surface to dry. Once dry it's time to play. Have fun.