St. Patrick's Day Fun!

St. Patrick's Day is one of my most favorite days to celebrate in my classroom!  I love having the opportunity to allow my students to be creative.

The day before St. Patrick's Day, I have my students create a leprechaun trap.  First, they have to make a plan to figure out how they can trap the leprechaun.  The students were placed in small groups where they wrote how they would make their trap to trick a leprechaun.  They also drew pictures to help them visualize what they were going to do.

I love how they were beginning with the end in mind by making a plan before they began working.  This is much more productive!

I love seeing them think and talk together.  This is a great team building activity.

Once they had their plan, they began making a trap!

I had sent in a letter the week before asking families to donate items for our leprechaun trap.  So, they sent in several recycled items and various craft pieces to help my kids make their traps. 

I loved seeing how each group was creative in their own way.

The students worked hard to listen to one another and come up with an idea that would work!

Here is an example of one of the plans the students' made.

Check out our completed traps!

The next morning....

the students received a surprise note from the leprechaun!

Oh no! They were all ruined!!

Once my kids got past the excitement of the leprechaun being in their room, they colored a fun 100's chart that turned out to be a face of the leprechaun!

Then, we did a fun graphing activity where they used lucky charms.  This is one of those activities I'm sure everyone does, but who doesn't love cereal?  When they finished, they got to eat it!

Later in the afternoon, my students went on the hunt for the leprechaun rocks the leprechaun left us.

I learned about leprechaun rocks from Gift of Curiosity.  You can learn how to make them and see what she did with them by clicking here!

Boy, they were excited!!

We gathered all of the rocks together and placed them on the table.  Luckily, I had vinegar at school so we could complete the task of the rocks. (wink, wink!)

The leprechaun told us to put the rocks in the vinegar and watch the magic!

There was magic!  They sizzled and bubbled and disappeared! 

Then, the students took turns reading the facts the found and recorded their information on the paper below.  

They had a really fun day.  We were able to complete fun activities for St. Patrick's Day and complete our classroom assignments.  It was the best of both worlds!

What fun things do you do on St. Patrick's Day?