Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!

Since I have been writing about the Early Childhood Conference this week, I haven't really been posting about what we have been up to in the classroom. Well, we have been learning about St. Patrick's Day!! We found Ireland on the Map, I have some photo's from a trip there so I showed them to the kids (they really got a kick out of me kissing the Blarney Stone) and read some story books about St. Patrick's Day... our favorite being, The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing. They absolutely loved the little traps for the leprechaun, and made me read every thing the kids wrote on them. I also added their names into the story as much as possible and that brought on a fit of laughter every time they heard their names or their friends name :)

We had some friends over today to help us celebrate and do some special crafts. We had a lot of fun and even got to play outside in the beautiful sunshine!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Cheese!!! Don't I look grand with my hat on??

This is how I made it!!!

We had the easel set up with green, blue & yellow paint... the murals came out wonderful. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with all the easel paintings?? I allow them to paint until they don't want to paint anymore, sometimes that means 2 pieces of paper or 15 pieces... some I keep, others I send home, and still others I throw out. I was thinking of using it for wrapping paper for our Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts... now finding a place to store it :)

I put out 3 shades of green paint and some small heart shaped boxes. I showed the kids how, if they connected the hearts they would look like a Shamrock.

Some got it... other's just liked the stamping with the hearts.... Process over Product right :)

We had Green Eggs again today... I thought it doesn't have to be just for Dr. Seuss' Birthday right!!! What would be more fitting then green eggs and toast for breakfast on St. Patrick's Day. The kids really enjoyed "painting" their toast. I got the idea from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds. But, note to self... use a toaster oven not a toaster to toast the bread. The side painted with the milk didn't toast as quick as the opposite side... so our first attempts were a little soggy. On our second attempt I just toasted the bread and then let the kids paint the toasted bread. It was a little messier, but it was fun.

I love these mystery type works. I hid gold coins in the Easter grass and the kids had to find a coin and put it on the numbers/space. The coins had numbers on them for the older kids to match, but the younger kids just put them on a circle.

Here the kids have to put the correct number of shamrocks into the hats. The little ones just put them in and take them out, which is a great fine motor activity for them.

In the Sensory Table I put some magnetic wands, magnetic chips, gold coins & shamrocks (not magnetic) and cups to place the items in. They enjoyed figuring out which ones would stick to their wands and then sorting them into the cups. Others just loved the feel of waving the wand, getting the chips and then taking their hand and pushing them all off the wand. One little girl did this over and over and over again. She enjoyed it very much.

Below are the pictures from our Lion and Lamb Theme!! I keep forgetting to post the finished product and the kids keep asking why they haven't seen THEIR work on the blog. So here they are...

What a busy week...