Monday, March 14, 2011

More St. Patrick's Day Fun

Who doesn't love the idea of finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or finding a wee little leprechaun hiding in the grass.  They are so many fun things to do for St. Patrick's day.  Here are only a few...so have fun and may the luck of the Irish be with you!
1.  Leprechaun Paper Plate Art
2.  Rainbow Art using Do-A-Dot Markers  Younger children can just "dot" the paper with any color and design.  Older children can fill in a picture of a  rainbow using the correct colors. (see photos)
3. Rainbow Dancing - Purchase party streamers for all the colors of the rainbow and cut 2 feet strips.  Staple the colors together and folded an index card over to make it sturdy.  The kids used the rainbow streamers to dance to the music.  This is fun to do when playing the "freeze" dance.  The streamers sound like wind when the kids move around. 
4.  Chocolate Gold Coins - have your child estimate how many coins are in the pot.  Sort the cons according to size.
5. Don't forget the hunt! http://mrsodaniels.blogspot.com/2011/03/hunt-for-golden-letters-st-patricks-day.html

Hunt for the Golden Letters - St. Patrick's Day Fun

After all this talk about leprechauns and rainbows, we thought it would be fun to go on a hunt to find the Pot of Gold!  
1.  I had prepared the gold coins ahead of time.  I took gold (or yellow) card stock, cut them into 2 inch squares and cut off the corners to create the coins.  I then wrote the letters of the alphabet on the coins.  One side capital letters and the other side lower case.  I scattered the letter coins all over the grass.
2.  The kids made a pot of gold and rainbow basket to hold all the gold they find.  I cut a sturdy white paper plate in half and the kids colored the back of the plates black.  I took another sturdy paper plate, cut it in half and took one side and cut to make an arc.  The kids then colored it to look like a rainbow.  I stapled the rainbow arc into the pot.
3.  Once they were done with their baskets, we headed outside to look for the leprechaun.  They were so surprised and excited to find gold all over the grass.  They quickly scooped up the gold and put inside their baskets.
4.  After all the gold was collected, we came back inside to sort through all their letters.  The kids said this was the best day ever!!!!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Wind Blew



 The Wind Blew 
1.) After reading the story, The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins practice blowing through a straw to see what objects can move by creating "wind".  Use cotton balls, leaves, rocks, or whatever else you can find in your backyard.  2.) Made a paper kite.  Cut out a diamond shape from construction paper and tape a piece of yarn on the back.  Use a paint brush to apply white elmer's glue all over the kite shape.  Place shapes cut out of party streamers or scrap construction paper to create a rainbow kite.