Is it just me, or do other teachers feel like St. Patrick's Day is even more hectic and crazy than the Friday before Christmas vacation?! I have to admit, the crazy antics of the Leprechaun did not help matters. That sneaky little guy made his way to our classroom sometime early Friday morning, before we all got to school. 😉 He flipped over chairs, threw gold glitter everywhere, made a mess of the room with green streamers, and dropped a few gold coins along the way. According to one of my first graders "that Leprechaun needs to take a tub because his feet are super dirty! He must have stepped on so many four-leaf clovers on his way here from Ireland!"
While the morning was extremely crazy, the excitement began to wear off somewhere around lunch time. It was a relatively calm afternoon, until it was my bright idea for my students to do a narrative writing assignment titled "How to Catch a Leprechaun." I have to say, some ideas that my students came up with were very clever, and I'm sure had the Leprechaun not been a fictional character, some of the kids may have been able to catch him. 😜
Many of my students even asked if they could use their writing to then draw a picture of their plan or their leprechaun trap, and some even asked if they could build a trap at home over the weekend. This gave me a wonderful idea for future years. I will make an attempt to have my students complete this writing assignment prior to St. Patricks Day. Then they will use their plan to actually create the trap (tying in a bit of engineering)!
Overall even though it was a completely crazy day, it brought me back to when I was a first grader and my teacher did the same thing to our classroom on St. Patrick's Day. Seeing the excitement on my students' faces, once again reminded me why I do what I do! All I could say at the end of the day was "Thank God it's Friday!"
I love your post. My nephews teacher did this for them in pre-k and kindergarten. It was always a hoot for them. My nephew still talks about it and tries to catch them. He was decked out this past St. Patty's day and we went to the parade in Abington. Great job!
ReplyDeleteMegan, you are seriously so creative and make learning so fun and interactive for your students! I can imagine the look on their faces when they walked into the classroom. I wish my fifth graders still believed in leprechauns; I would have loved for one to visit our classroom too!
ReplyDeleteMegan, your so dedicated! Before this year I had no idea that leprechauns were just as popular as Elf on a Shelf. My students came in talking about the tricky leprechauns at their own houses. This is such a cute idea, I wish I had thought of it too. I too had students writing about "How to catch a Leprechaun" they were so creative!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! I remember one day when I subbed in an kindergarten class that the teacher did something similar for her students and they loved it! It is so nice to see the children still believe in things like this. I work with third and fifth graders and some of the third graders still believe in Santa. I like how dedicated you are to your creativity with your students. I think thinking this idea further like you did and incorporating these new ideas for next year sounds like a great idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I am sure your students will remember this when they are older! I think it would be a great idea in the future to do this assignment before St. Patrick's Day and have the students create their traps at home. It incorporates engineering into your writing lesson. You could also have the parents come in to view all the projects to add to your parent/ community involvement standards!
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