St. Patrick's Day Fun!

Hi!  It's Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding  Hands and Sticking Together.  I thought this month I would share some of my favorites for St. Patrick's Day.  Even though it's a quick little holiday, the kids just love the magic that it brings.  This time of year, at least here in sub-zero Upstate NY, we could use a little magic!

 Here are the "flavors of the month."

Here is my favorite play dough recipe...

Bisquick Playdough
2 cups Bisquick
1 cup salt
2 cups water
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp oil

Mix all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 3 minutes.  Scrape and stir the bowl. Microwave for another 3 minutes. If it is not quite ready,  microwave for another minute.
(I made a double batch and put it back in my microwave for one more minute, which worked perfectly.)

For the mint, I just added green food coloring and quite a bit of mint extract.  For the gold, I added LOTS of gold glitter.

Early in March, the leprechauns usually make an appearance, to make their presence known, ...and turn our milk green for snack, while the kids are at specials- SO exciting. I usually plan a day in early March to be my snack day, so those leprechauns can pull this off.

Sometimes, I have some skeptics about drinking the green milk, but all it takes is one friend to say it's delicious, and they are good to go.

Here is another project that makes me smile.  We plant  grass seed to make our Crazy Hair People.  I take everyone's picture up close and print them 3X5.  I use two sided tape to stick the pictures on to the styrofoam cups. The hair grows quickly and the kids just love it.  I have some little tiny rubber bands that the girls love to use to make pony tails.  The boys love to give themselves haircuts.

One of the children's favorites is our gold letters and gold sight words that I put out for centers.  They have so much fun reading the words or making words with the letters- or just playing with the gold!

I found this rug at... TARGET Dollar Spot! ($3 Spot, actually- but still... LOOK at it!)  It is perfect for...  oh so many things. It isn't big at all, but called a doormat, which made me laugh a little. Maybe a doormat for leprechauns. That's probably it.  I am going to use my sight word gold for some activities.  This would be a perfect "something" for the leprechauns to leave.  I like when they take over watching the behavior of the kids.  There is quite a lull between Santa and the leprechauns.  

The gold is SO easy to make, and just so much fun for the kids. 

Before...

After!

I wrote all about what I do with the gold at my post called  Literacy GOLD! 

Our class makes a We Are Lucky class book, thanks to  Sarah from A Sunny Day in First Grade.  I LOVE her products. Every one is so well made and so perfect to use in the classroom. Plus, she shares so many wonderful freebies- like this one! This book is free at her TPT store!

                                     

                                    

 I am lucky because I am hape.  (happy)

                                   

We also finished our Lucky Journals!  We worked on a couple pages each day, and the children really took their time. It is a simple way to have children write a little, and great even for morning work. If you don't include the "Leprechauns hide..." page, you could use this anytime in the spring.  Maybe you could go on a lucky clover hunt outside on a nice, spring day!

                                      

There is another page in the little journal that says, "My last name is..."    On this page, I let the kids write their last name with all different colors and fancy ways- because most of them need practice spelling and writing their last name.

  

I also made a different cover in case you prefer rainbows...

                                           

Every year, I take the children's pictures in a hat they choose, and have each of them tell me why they are lucky.  This first one made me smile. 

This one got lots of  bonus points, as you can imagine...

When St. Patrick's Day arrives, the children  love the mini leprechaun cookies that the leprechauns leave. I lovedeating the pre-made sugar cookie dough using the pre-made sugar cookie dough to make them.

Finally, this project always makes me happy for spring.  I love to have these Spring Smiles up for Open House and Grandparents' Day.  The children love to figure out this challenge.  It's amazing how easy it really is!  These smiles are from last year, and I can still remember every one of them!

I hope you found some fun new activities to use in your classroom.  Happy March! Thank you for stopping by.  I'd love you to follow me at my blog and my facebook page.