Anticipating St. Patrick's Day!

I was surprised that only one out of my 11 Kindergartners seemed to have a clue what Saint Patrick's Day was about. I wanted to get their imaginations revved up quickly to celebrate this holiday since we only have about a week before our classroom celebration. I decided to appeal to my students' love of sensory input (and wet paint in general) by having them create shamrocks with their fists. I told them to make the letter "a" in sign language, then lay their fist down flat into the plate of paint. I guided their hands to the correctly rotated position so the leaves would fan out. Then, students took a paint brush in their clean hand and made a quick swoosh down and over for the stem. I enjoyed seeing the looks on their faces as their fists dripped green paint! It was priceless! 

The next morning, I had them cut out their dry shamrocks (having previously traced around them in highlighter as a visual guide for their scissors). Each shamrock turned out unique to the individual. We hung each one onto a bulletin board by the door. Every morning so far, at least one of them comes in and admires their work wondering what exactly we are going to learn next week about St. "Paddick's" Day as one of my kiddos says. I just love seeing their excitement grow!

Happy Friday!