Leprechauns are on the Loose in Pre-K!

Hello again, it's Ayn from little illuminations! My favorite holiday, St. Patrick's Day,  is fast approaching and I'm ready to let the fun begin and share with you here on PreK+K Sharing! 

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Art Center

In our art center, I have shamrock shapes available and cardboard shamrock shapes for tracing. They are great for making Shamrock people or leprechauns!

We also fasten a few toilet paper rolls together to dip in paint. They make cute shamrocks! 

Leprechaun Shenanigans

The leprechauns in our area are notorious troublemakers and tricksters! They come in at night (and sometimes at recess) and take out toys and leave little messes. Occasionally, they will leave us a little treat like Shamrock pudding or green milk. One even dropped his hat in his haste to get away! 

Leprechaun Traps

The kids love to make leprechaun traps to try to catch the leprechauns! They get together and make them out of anything we can find or recycle. Some are fancy and elaborate, 

and some are plain looking, 

but they are a great way for kids to work together and problem solve. My favorite part is having them explain how they have made the trap and why!

 "That leprechaun is gonna fall right in there. Then he's gonna be trapped. We put lots of green stuff in there because we know he likes green stuff!" 

"The leprechaun is going to fly into there. He will look at all the green and we will close the lid and trap him!"

"The leprechaun will go in to play with all the green stuff. There is a bridge and if the leprechaun tries to cross the bridge, he will just fall right in there."

"We put a lot of green fish in ours. After we trap the little guy, we'll push him in and close it. That's how it works!"

The Great Leprechaun Hunt

On St. Patrick's Day, we have "The Great Leprechaun Hunt". We follow clues around the school to see if we can catch him. 

We haven't been successful yet, but he's a good sport and often leaves a little treat at the last clue. Usually, a little bag of skittles with a rhyme about the Skittles being a rainbow.

One of our classes got this neat little treat! It is a canning jar layered with marshmallow clouds, Skittles or M&M's and Hershey's Pot of Gold candy or gold coin candy on the bottom!

Reading About Leprechauns

We love to read! Here is a selection of some of our favorite books about leprechauns.



Looking for more St. Patrick's Day ideas? Click this link for lots more ideas on my blog, little illuminations.

Follow me on Pinterest and check out my St. Patrick's Day board! 





May the luck o' the Irish be with you!

I'm thrilled to say I have been blogging here on PreK+K Sharing since the very beginning!  I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com where I share my PreK classroom adventures or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

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. 

Math + Engineering in Preschool with Post-it Notes! STEAM!

How do you turn STEM into STEAM in Preschool? 

MIX IN THE ARTS of COURSE! 

The year of 2015 will be remembered as a year of introspection for me: 

personally and professionally. 

We are off to a whizz-bang start on all fronts. 

Which leaves me with a lot of introspection and examination. 

Things I know for sure: 

1. There are amazing people in the Early Childhood world: 

Amazing people directing AMAZING work from very young children! 

Preschool Bulletin Board: Self-Esteem, Math and Engineering QUILTED Together!

I've just finished my first, ever, week long RESIDENCY

 for an entire school district!

My week of visiting all nine elementary buildings for a district, 

took place in Texas. 

You've always heard the rumor about life being BIG in TX? 

I'm here to report that there is validity to that claim!

Take a quick peak over my shoulder and see for yourself.  

Post-it Notes as Geometric Shapes + Fine Motor Work = Awesome ARTS Awareness

These first images are from my fifth and final day.

It was quite a week!!! 

I kicked off the week by giving a day-long

 staff development training on the Arts. 

We sang. We danced. We jumped. We laughed. We signed. We learned. 

Each teacher in attendance received a copy of my first picture book, 

"You're Wonderful." 

Quilts of Fabric become Traditional Picture Book Illustrations! "You're Wonderful" by Debbie Clement 

Quite an exuberant way to begin!

Then Tuesday through Friday I visited each of the nine buildings, 

making a total of 17 Author-Illustrator presentations 

to the youngest students in each building: 

the preschoolers! 

2. I LUV LUV LUV what I get to do for a 'living.' 

Children are so VERY capable of learning! 

That learning is designed and directed by a brilliant teacher.

Extending a picture book's style through a collaborative ARTS project builds bridges and makes connections between the disciplines!

This is what I call an Arts Integration Project! 

3. Teachers inspire each other! 

The pictures above are two different teachers in the same building, piggy-backing from each other's approach. Each are using Post-it notes as the 'fabric' for examining the possibilities of geometric shapes. 

Who is the mentor and who is being mentored. 

You might be surprised. 

Wait till you see how the third teacher in the same pod

directed her students to respond to my quilted illustrations! 

TA-DA!

I felt like I was playing "Where's Waldo."

Three teachers. Three variations. 

Shapes! Shapes! And MORE SHAPES in Preschool Art Response to "You're Wonderful" by Debbie Clement

4. My photography skills are challenged by massive Art displays. 

There's collaboration within classrooms 

and there's collaboration within a building! 

Look what happens when there are thirteen different approaches from teachers in the same building. 

The colors are vibrant and the approaches are numerous!

Why yes. 

My heart does literally JUMP when I walk into these displays!  

WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE! 

It takes vision and planning and resources and an excel spread sheet to pull off something of this magnitude! 

It takes insight and administrative support. 

It takes a willingness to step outside the box!

I am fortunate to meet passionate ECE educators at national events! 

That's how an Artist RESIDENCY unfolds! 

The next national event on my dance-card is Frogstreet's SPLASH this summer. 

I am so excited. I'm so VERY excited at the opportunity to return!