St. Patricks Day Ideas for Preschoolers

    Today I pulled out my St. Patrick's Day box to begin lesson planning. 

        

 Here's a glimpse of some of my treasures and some cool ideas for our upcoming theme. 

We'll use these items in our Dramatic Play area. Sparkly green hats, shades, Mardi Gras beads, green stripped socks and green hair accessories. 

"My Little Green Tambourine" is two paper plates with beans inside. 

What a great compliment to Circle Time. 

These lovely leprechaun mats were made years ago.

I placed two shamrocks on a white hard stock paper and had them laminated.

I use a green dry erase marker to write with. They wipe off and I can reuse 

them the following year. 

Each year I tell my class,  "it's been said if you catch a leprechaun he has to 

give you three wishes." "What would you wish for?" I record their answers and 

post them all around the classroom. 

This cute little leprechaun was made by my first grader last year in Mrs. Cordner's class. 

I thought he'd be the perfect addition to my St. Patrick's Day theme. 

Science: Green Water makes music? 

For this experiment you'll certainly want pencil and paper handy to record predictions, observations, 

and questions.

If I tap on the inside, top, or outside of the glass, 

will that change the sound?

Can you play a song?

Yes, we just happened to have key-lime yogurt in the fridge! 

I think I'll serve it with granola for a little leprechaun snack. 

What can you do with a shamrock? Here's Dayjah

turning her shamrock into a puppy. She told me 

she learned this in her first grade class. Coincidentally, 

this daughter had Mrs. Cordner for first grade too! 

I couldn't resist pulling out the green Easter eggs for Math. 

I haven't decided what I'll use them for...

counting, sorting by tops and bottoms, or

writing matching numbers on them. 

Oh the possibilities!  

Happy St. Patty's Day

                      

Books you might enjoy with your St. Patrick's Day theme.

       

   

Preschool Goldfish Math

I remember in High School bringing home my Math homework and my mom scratching her head as I explained to her how my teacher told me I was to arrive at the correct answer. Not long ago, my daughter brought me her homework and I understood my mothers frustration as I had to visit my daughters teacher to be taught myself how to do the lattice method. Although, the methods may change over the years, math remains the same. I find it a challenge to weave Math in our lesson throughout the day, steadily moving away from the routine of just counting and number recognition.

On this particular day we were having goldfish for snack. I asked the kids to sort the goldfish by color. Explaining further that all the red ones go together, all the green ones go together and so on. I did not specify how to do it just as long as they were separated.

What I learned was that each child grouped their goldfish differently which made it so clear in my mind, there will always be many ways to getting to the answer. I am so glad we don't all get it the same way, what is important is that we get it. "A method by any other name, produces the answer just the same."