Happy St. Patty's Day! I'm more excited than ever for St. Patrick's Day. I've always loved the shenanigans of our classroom leprechaun. I've never said no to a Shamrock Shake and who doesn't like rainbows and gold? BUT this year I have my very own lassie in Dublin, marching in the parade. I'm so excited to see her marching with her marching band streamed live into my classroom tomorrow morning. It's been amazing to share some sights from Ireland with my Owlets this week as she toured beautiful sights on the Emerald Isle. Here she is with her good friend at the Cliffs of Moher the first day of their arrival.
This is the only cloudy day they've had!
My classroom leprechaun, Seamus has been up to his usual tricks; knocking over supplies, hiding chairs, dumping the classroom library books in a pile on the floor and today he wrapped the room in yarn. My students will be so delighted to clean this mess up. They'll have to wrap the yarn around a pencil to get to a prize at the end of the string. I wonder whose string will be the longest and shortest. I wonder if we line all the strings together if they'll stretch down the entire length of the hall...Hmmm
We did try to catch that leprechaun. Each child designed their own trap at home and brought it into school. They were so proud of their projects and loved giving a presentation to show how it worked. We thought we'd caught a leprechaun until we looked closer and realized a leprechaun had tricked us...again! Here are a couple of our traps. Aren't they fabulous?
See! Caught in our traps!!
If you need some great resources for St. Patrick's Day, I can't say enough about Sunny and Bright in First Grade's St. Patrick's Close Reading Passages. I paired my students up and had each pair take one of the 10 passages and work on that passage together. We are working hard on fluency, so we practiced our passages and then read them to the class. The photographs in this product are beautiful. I'll be able to use this for many years to come! Click HERE to take a look at it.
I have wanted to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for quite some time. All week I told myself this Friday....This Friday. Friday came and I had the chance to spend the evening with the best husband in the whole wide world shopping for kitchen flooring, watching Rockford Files and just hanging out together. Just so you know the best husband in the whole wide world happens to be married to me, so I'm feeling quite lucky! Now I'm feeling a wee bit guilty sitting at my computer while he works to get the old flooring up and out!
Here are my five random things from the week...
1.On Monday I had to say goodbye to my oldest after she spent her spring break with us. She is one amazing girl. She is quirky, fun and talented. At this very moment she is visiting Wash-U in St. Louis. We were hoping she'd go to MSU just a couple hours from home. She is loving everything about St. Louis and looks like she'll be there for her graduate studies. I have so many family connections to St. Louis. My mother studied at Wash-U and so it seems only fitting that her namesake should go there, too. I wish it were closer, but I lived in St. Louis and I will love visiting her there. This amazing girl made everything in this picture! She cooked vegetarian meals for us all week. She wanted something special for her "last dance", so she whipped up a dress for herself and had to put on over 50 grommets!
2. I'm so excited to be planning a trip north for Spring Break! My daughter will be 11 hours south and my son will be 11 hours north next year. Over Spring Break we'll be visiting his college of choice in the beautiful Houghton, Michigan.
3. I had a Parent Visit Day this week. On Friday I invited my parents to come and watch my Owlets perform Super Brush to the Rescue. After performing it on stage we did it one last time in the classroom. The video production catches a lot of the noise from pages being turned, but I LOVE that they are all following along with their scrip and pretty much ignore the new tooth that joins the mouth. I was laughing through the whole thing, so it is a little shaky!
4. Some of our parents stayed and enjoyed the cast party. We celebrated by watching the original Lorax movie and eating Truffala Trees...Yum! All you need are pretzel rods, sherbet and Brown Barbaloots Chocolate Teddy Grahams!
5. Goodbye, Mr. Seamus G. Leprechaun. We loved your tricks and will miss you. Next time we'll catch you and find out where you keep your gold.
Seamus's last trick was to toilet paper the room. and leave green glitter everywhere! The janitor loves me!!
Thanks for visiting! I hope you'll be wearing the green tomorrow and dancing a jig. On St. Patrick's Day we're all Irish!
I paper pieced and hand quilted this wall hanging. If I had more time I would spend it quilting!
What a beauty of a day it was! I'm so happy that I have no outside windows in my classroom...I'm sure I wouldn't have accomplished a thing. I would have had one eye out the window trying to see my first turkey vulture for the year! I am happy to report that I did get to run out to my backyard in time to see what the crows were so upset about. I was hoping for an owl, but wasn't too sad to see a red-shouldered hawk instead. As soon as I start talking about birds I get off track...sorry! Back on task...Because I have no outside windows I've created my own window. I hope it will give the room a nice cheery feel for the spring. Tomorrow the last remnants of snow will be put away and out will come our spring greenery.
My momma did beautiful handwork. When she lost her vision to macular degeneration, she gave me her stash of fabric. I didn't know then how much I would enjoy making things with fabric. Thanks, Mom! I miss you!!
Out our window we can see
Crocus, birds, all signs of spring
Jackets off and sandals on
We are happy snow is gone!
Winds may blow and thunder boom
We won’t be frightened in our room
For the sun will come out and a rainbow appear
To remind us our friend Jesus is near.
Another sign of spring!
I have had a ball this week with my writing prompt. A couple of St. Patty's Day treats are included in this packet! I ended up using the prompt with my afternoon computer classes. All the students in my school 1-8 have asked Seamus P. McCune L.I.T. (Leprechaun In Training!) for some of his "extra" gold. I loved reading everyone's reasoning as to why they should have the gold! I've heard that the said Leprechaun has shown up and delivered some gold to some persuasive students!
If I don't talk to you before Saturday, don't forget to wear green and keep your eyes open for owls!
We got gold!
first grade work
A fifth grader writes to Seamus!
I have never seen anyone celebrate St. Pat's like this family!! They make life a lot of fun for their kids! This student is in fourth grade!
I just finished up creating a game and a writing activity for my firsties tomorrow. St. Patrick's Day is such a fun day and because it falls on Saturday this year, we'll just have to celebrate a wee bit 'o the green each day this week. I'm not Irish, but Irish I was. Plus, I used to babysit for people who were Irish, so that makes me honorary Irish, right? I have been trying to come up with an exciting way to get my students excited about persuasive writing. I think I've come up with something that is sure to be a hit! Seamus the Leprechaun has written each student a letter about needing to get rid of some gold. I'm sure that more than one of my firsties will want to get in on some gold. They'll hang there letters and rainbows up in hopes that Seamus will be persuaded to leave them gold. You must be excited to see what my students will come up with. Be sure to check back later this week to see what they say and to see who gets the gold! Check out Seamus Patrick McCune's letter at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Luck-of-the-Leprechaun. (It's freeeee!) Be on the look out for green owls and please let me know if you see one!
We are going to make the crayons tomorrow, too!
My first Teachers Pay Teachers purchase! KB Konnected, thanks for the cute graphics!!
