St. Patrick Day Fun

All Things Irish

One of my favorite March activities is our St. Patrick's Day lapbook.  It contains all sorts Irish fun!


We begin this two week unit discussing the country of Ireland.  We listen to and sing Irish songs, learn Irish dance and read all sorts of fun Irish tales.


The favorite, of course, is always tales of leprechauns.  After reading about these mischievous little men and women, we decided to create our own tiny leprechaun. 


They were adorable!

We wrote our own leprechaun tales as well!  It always amazes me to see the types of stories the munchkins can come up with!

To add to our leprechaun fun, we opened a box of Lucky Charms cereal and spent a morning sorting, counting and graphing the marshmallows.

Of course, eating them was the best part!  What a great morning snack!



And isn't this the sweetest thing?

Well, that was only the beginning of our Ireland study.  We also took a look at our globe and searched and searched for the little Emerald Isle.  We put a little map into our lapbook, locating and coloring Ireland on it. 

Then we discovered what the Irish flag looks like.  We compared it to our flag, noting ways the two were the same and also noting how they were different.  We added a small flap book in our lapbook that included a tiny Irish flag.

Then we created a large one to take home.

 

After discussing the fact that Ireland is an island, it was fun to create this simple little snack and see if the munchkins figured out what we were doing.  It was funny as they began to realize it was Ireland and the ocean...I heard lots of "I know!" and "Ohhh...I get it!"



The main part of our St. Patrick lapbook was dedicated, of course, to the saint himself.  We began with a coloring image of him.  The munchkins did a great job making it look like a stained glass window.

We read several nonfiction stories of St. Patrick's life (as well as some of the fun legends associated with the saint).  The munchkins got to write a little biography of him after completing a KWL chart about him.  (K=what we know, W=what we wonder, L=what we learned)

 

What great writers we have!

We spent some time exploring why St. Patrick is always pictured with a clover.  We learned a fun song about the clover and the Blessed Trinity and then we added a clover to the front of our lapbook.  This clover had all the symbols of the Trinity on it as well.

Some of the munchkins made decade rosaries in the shape of a clover.

And others began searching for clovers outside in the play yard.  Our science center had loads of clover at it this week, along with several magnifying glasses to get a better look!

Since we were sooooo into clover, we decided to plant some (along with some grass seed, since it germinates so quickly).

The fun thing about our seeds is that we planted them in a little hermetically sealed jar and set them in our windows.  Because of the seal, we have our own little terrariums.  We will not only get to watch the life cycle of the plants, but also the water cycle at work.  It is always such a treat when it begins to "rain" inside the jars.  The munchkins love it!

 (And, I have to admit, it is pretty cool.)

After planting, we discussed all the things a plant needs to grow and we created a cute little flap book to add to our lapbook.
 

Then we spent a day with one of the most fun stories about St. Patrick:

St Patrick and the Snakes

 

We learned a fun little song about St. Patrick banging the drums to drive the snakes from Ireland (just as he drove out sin). 

 

Then we created St. Patrick miter hats and paper snakes.

Some of the munchkins colored an image of St. Patrick and the snakes.

 

And we all enjoyed "snake snack".

Yes...we eat a lot in kindergarten.

The swirling eyes were quite a hit!  I'll have to remember that next year...

What a cute bunch of saints!

Our finished lapbook had soooo much in it and the munchkins were very proud of them.  They couldn't wait to take them home and show Mom and Dad everything they learned about Ireland and its patron saint.

Good St. Patrick, pray for us!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Sisters of Life

Meeting the Sisters

What an interesting classroom conversation we had when Father told us that the Sisters of Life would be visiting our school last week.

Whose sisters are they?

We had a lovely discussion about vocations...

And then we had the pleasure of meeting our visitors.

We got to have the most fun with them, as they visited us during RECESS!



Such fun!

And what a wonderful impression made on some very impressionable little hearts.

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Dog's Colorful Day: Part 2

Fun with Dog: Math

One of our first math activities was to count Dog's spots.  Of course, in the book, he has 10...but we created a game in which we had to determine the number of spots by completing an addition problem.  We are learning and practicing the strategy of counting on, so this was the perfect opportunity to use that strategy.

The munchkins loved playing and adding the correct number of pom spots.



After playing the classroom version of this game, each munchkin made his or her own..complete with a bag full of poms to take home!

(or to play with during free time!)

We spent much of our math time during this unit working on different types of graphs. 

We graphed the favorite color of all our friends...

Which was the favorite?  We had way too many columns that were the same.

Of course, any munchkin knows that the math word for that is "equal".

We had some fun with a bag full of skittles Dog's spots, too.

Everyone sorted their colors, tallied them on the recording sheet and then transferred those tallies into a bar graph.

Now that graph had a bit more to analyze!

Probably the most fun, however, was the taste test!

All the munchkins had the chance to taste each skittle flavor and choose one favorite taste.

Everyone had to collect data from their friends and record it on a data sheet.





That data was then transferred to a graph, too.  It was a little harder to keep track of, but the munchkins did a great job!

And although this has nothing to do with math...

We ended with a fun visitor!

"Dog" himself...or at least his stand-in Otis!

Thanks for visiting, Otis.  We love you!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Dog's Colorful Day: Part One

Days With Dog

Word Fun

Our February unit based on the fun book, Dog's Colorful Day always has so much packed into it that I found it was hard this year to get it all into one post.  So I've decided to break it apart into two parts.  This one will focus on some of the literature activities that we did.  The next one will focus on math.

After reading the story, it was only natural to work with color words.  Well...my munchkins have been reading their color words since before Christmas, so that was hardly a challenge.  In order to step things up a notch, we decided it was time to start learning to spell them!  Dr. Jean's fun song, The Color Train, helped tremendously.  When you put anything to music, it is so much easier for munchkins to remember!

We made a little color word game, coloring colored cards and matching color words.  We used it as a matching game, but also as a self-checking game of spelling. 

The munchkins had fun playing it together and quizzing each other on how to spell each word.

We had a fun pocket chart poem about some colorful dogs, as well.  Many of the munchkins enjoyed reading it together during their free time...

The favorite part? 

The very last line had some fun nonsense words that were very fun to say!

We decided to create our own version of the dog in Emma Dodd's book, but we changed him up a just a bit.  We decided to give him spots of only one color.  We had to determine how many spots to give him as well. 

We had blue spotted dogs...

And yellow spotted dogs...

And gray spotted dogs...with only a couple of spots at that!

The munchkins then had to construct a sentence to go with their dogs.  The sentence could say anything they wanted, as long as it included a number word and a color word. 

What fantastic sentences we had when it was complete.  Many of the munchkins wrote questions:

Do you see my two red spots?

Do you like my five pink spots?

And others had statements:

This dog is white with three blue spots.

Some munchkins even combined two sentences:

It was a great way to practice all the words we are working so hard on lately.

And if that wasn't enough, to end our unit the munchkins each re-wrote the Dog's Colorful Day story in their own words, using what they know about beginning, middle and end.  

Wow!  I'd say that deserves a Dog's Colorful Day snack!

Yum...

Yes, those are Dog's spots (M & M's) on his white fur (vanilla pudding).

And it was a fun lesson in color mixing. 

What color do you get when you mix them all together?

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Special Dogs for Special Friends

Learning About Service Dogs

It was so interesting and very well-timed to have a special assembly at our school explaining the training and use of service dogs.  It was interesting because we got to meet Peyton, one of the black lab dogs.  It was well-timed because our literature unit for the past two weeks has been about dogs, focusing on the fun book, Dog's Colorful Day.

We got to watch as Peyton showed us how he can open doors by pulling on a rope.

He also showed us how he can help someone take off a coat or a glove.

And he can even pick up a cell phone (or other dropped object) and give it back to a person who may not be able to retrieve it herself.

The only thing we couldn't do, of course, is pet Peyton.  That was one of the most important things we learned.  Service dogs are working and while they are working, it can be disruptive to pet them. 

Thanks for visiting, Peyton!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Happy Birthday Munchkin!

Happy Un-Birthday to You!