Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is a really fun theme in Preschool!  I had a blast teaching this week.  Here are some things I did with the kiddos. 

The Wednesday before St. Pattie's while the kids were napping, I hid golden chocolates all around the room.  At story time after they woke up, I told them that I saw tons of leprechauns in our room while they were sleeping.  I had them convinced that the leprechauns had played with their toys and even danced on their heads and toes while they slept.  I said that they made a huge mess and I had to clean it up, but while I was cleaning I noticed the leprechauns had left something behind.  They had left the boys and girls chocolate gold coins to thank the boys and girls for letting them play with their toys.  The boys and girls were so excited.  Each child had a clue given to them from where the leprechaun had played and left a gold coin behind.  They had so much fun!

That following Thursday, I decided to read a story where children make a trap to catch a leprechaun.  Since we had leprechauns in our room the day before, I suggested we make some leprechaun traps to set out in our classroom.  The children loved this idea and worked really well together.  I was surprised at how serious they were creating these two traps. 

Group one's trap is below.  They put a gold fake coin down the tube and planned on trapping the leprechauns there.

 Group two's trap is below.  They were even more creative.  The green circles on the top are swings.  They thought the leprechaun would swing in, and then drop down.  Next to the tube is a whole bunch of feathers.  They set their fake gold on top of the feathers and said the leprechaun would fall through the feathers into a sticky hole and be trapped.

Friday when the children came to school there were no leprechauns in their traps.  They were disappointed, but then I reminded them that it seemed like our leprechauns like coming during nap and we still had time to catch one.  When they woke up from nap, they found little green footprints all over their traps!  They also realized the fake gold they had placed in their traps were gone!  On the table was this.........

The leprechauns had left each one of the children a leprechaun's lunch!  Kiwi and celery make a clover, and the ritz cheese crackers represent gold!  The kids were disappointed they didn't catch a leprechaun, but they loved the treat and were very excited to scrutinize the footprints.  They also started making up their own stories of how the leprechauns came and got out.  It was a fun week!

To end my St. Patrick's week, I baked spritzer cookies.  They were delicious!