March Celebrations

March is the month of the wearing of the GREEN!  March is the month when the little people are seen!

This is a delightful story about a lazy girl named Ninnie, her grandmother and a clever Leprechaun. 

 St. Patrick's Day Word Jars: This is a fun and easy Literacy activity that can be used for any theme, topic or holiday. Cut thin craft foam into 1" squares. Write the  letters of a word - in this case a word associated with St. Patrick's Day - on individual squares. Make the letters of each word the same color and make each word a different color. Put the foam letters in a jar.  Students empty the jar and put the words together. Have an answer key nearby to make the activity self checking.

 

How Many Does it Take? Make St. Patrick's Day measuring sticks by gluing small (all the same size) shamrocks on a tongue depressor. Have students use this nonstandard unit of measurement to measure items around the classroom.

 My Leprechaun Riddle: Put out a variety of scrap paper and collage materials and have each student create a free form Leprechaun.  Glue the Leprechauns to construction paper. That's the crafty part, now comes the writing part. Students write 2 or 3 sentences on slips of paper describing the Leprechaun they made. Students read the descriptions and try to figure out whose Leprechaun is described.

Flag of Ireland: It's the perfect time to do a quick study of  flags from different countries. Discuss shapes, colors and symbols on the different flags.  Set up the easel and paints and have students paint the Irish flag.

 

Make a Rainbow: A simple Science experiment that projecst a real rainbow image on the wall.  Fill a shallow glass baking dish with water. Tilt a small mirror in the water and shine a flashlight in the center of the mirror. A rainbow will appear as if by magic.  Only you know it's not magic, it's just the reflected light.

Sooo many fun Arts & Crafts projects this month.  Growing grass for leprechaun hair.  Shamrock project galore. Rainbows and of course . . .  the pot of gold! 

Celebrate and party on with all things GREEN! Green apples, mint oreos, guacamole and chips, grapes, costumes, Green beans????? 

 

March Booklist

Leprechauns, Rainbows, Books, Books, Books! What a great month!

Over the Rainbow by E.Y. Harburg
This book contains the introductory verse to the Over the Rainbow sung by Judy Garland. She actually recorded these lyrics but they were never used in the film. Amazing illustrations!


Th Luckiest Saint Patrick's Day Ever by Teddy Slater
It's March 17th and the leprechauns are gathered and ready to celebrate their favorite day of the year.


The Leprechaun Who Has Lost His Rainbow by Sean Callahan
When a leprechaun appears and asks for help in saving the St. Patrick's Day parade, a little girl offers items of different colors to rebuild his lost rainbow.


St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons
Six legends about St. Patrick plus addional information, decorations, parades, etc.


The Rainbow Book by Kate Ohrt
Emotions are as bright and unique as rainbows. This book explores relationships between colors and emotions.





January Celebrations

Let's celebrate Birthdays this month!  Check out the ideas below to celebrate everyone in the class.

This book has been welcoming babies into the world for over a decade.  it's companion book - A Brithday Cake is No Ordinary Cake also by Debra Frasier celebrates every year in the life of a child and of our great, green plant Earth. 

Paper Collage: Set aside a day when students make special papers that can be used for bookmaking, card making or the special birthday envelopes described below.  Finger paint, crayon resist, stamped paper, layered, scraped - think Colorful - think whimsical - think Eric Carle!

Birthday Cards: Bring out the box full of birthday stamps, stickers, special markers, etc. and put it in your Writing Center anytime someone has a birthday. Each student makes a fantastic, fun and fancy birthday card for the birthday boy/girl.  While everyone is working feverishly to make the most fabulous birthday card of all the birthday boy/girl decorates a special envelope to collect all the cards. They can use the special collage papers to make a birthday cake or whatever they wish. When the students place their birthday cards in the special envelope, they also write What I Like About You all over the front and back of the envelope/folder. A great way to take home your cards AND have a place to store them!



 

What Time Were You Born? Talk with your students about the initials AM and PM and what these mean.  Have parents fill out a card that tells exactly what time their child was born and if it was in the AM or PM. Use the cards to further discussion about time - especially AM and PM - and to make a classroom graph.

 

How Long is a Minute?  Read the book,  Just A Second by Steve Jenkins as a lead in to this easy to prepare activity. Place a clock or watch with a second hand in your Math Station. Make a menu of cards with different activities such as Write Your Name or Jumping Jacks. This is a partner activity. One student is the timer, the other student chooses an activity from the list and does what it says - for one minute. Timer says, "Go" and watches the second hand go around for one minute. At the end of the minute, "Time's up!" Students change places.  As an extension, students can make up their own activity cards to add to the station.

 

 

Oxyegyn Needed: Use a birthday candle for this simple experiment to show students that fire needs oxegyn to "burn."  

  

 

Individual Time Capsules: Have students bring a decorated shoe box (Time Capsule) from home. Specify that the top and bottom must be wrapped seperately so the boxes can be opened at school.  Add a variety of items to the Time Capsule - How Tall I Was in Kindergarten, Handprints and Footprints, Writing samples, Art projects, Class pictures, the possibilites are endless.  Students may even bring small items from home to put in their time capsules.  Things like Hot Wheel cars, or baseball cards, or anything small that has meaning to them. Parents also write letters to their Kindergarten child that won't be opened until they day they graduate from high school.  After all the things are collected, tie the box and label it:

 To be opened on the day I graduate from high school in 20______ !  Now send it home to gather dust on a high shelf until Graduation Day.

 

 

New Birthday Song: Tired of the same old, same old birthday song? Beg, borrow, steal or . . .  write a new one!

February Celebrations

 This month is all about the American flag, the Statue of Liberty and George and Abe  

 

Is it I pledge allegiance to the flag? Or is it I led a piegeon to the flag? This picture books helps kids understand the meaning of the words to the pledge of allegiance.

 

 

 

 

Voting Booth: Use the book Duck For President  by Doreen Cronin to talk about the election process. Contruct a simple voting booth in your classroom where students can cast their secret ballots. Students can vote on a wide variety of topics - Do you like Abraham Lincoln better with a beard or without a beard? or Which of these three books should we read at Storytime? You get the idea!

 

American Bingo: Familiarize your students with American symbols by playing - BINGO! Prepare a six or nine box BINGO card for each player. Put stickers of American symbols or small clip art pictures in each box. make a matching set of individual cards with stickers. Put out beans, coins, etc. for BINGO markers. One player shuffles the cards and places them face down in a pile. Players take turns drawing a card and calling out the name of the symbol. The first player to cover the entire

board - or four corners - or only the top row, WINS!

 

I'm Proud to Be an American: Choose 4 or 5 of your favorite "cut and paste" projects representing different American symbols. Put a different project out for students to make every day for a week. For example, an American flag, an eagle, a paper Statue of Liberty. What about an Abraham Lincoln or George Washington craft project? Save all the student projects to assemble into booklets at the end of the week.

 

I'm Proud to Be an American: It's time to use your favorite February craft projects and write about the different American symbols. Assemble into booklets and sent them home.

 

If I Were President . . .  Find out exactly what your students would do if THEY were president by having them write about it.  Combine it with a simple drawing or craft project that can be used as a hall or bulletin board display or assembled into a class book.

 

 

How Many Drops? Your student's won't want to leave this activity - it's that much fun! Put out lots of pennies, droppers, aluminum pie tins (anything that's shallow and will hold water), and . . .

of course - water! Students put a penny into the pie tine, then, one drop at a time, add water. The question for the students is "How many drops of water can you drop onto the penny before it overflows?" Tallying might help them to count the drops as they do the experiment. Students record their findings as they draw and write about the experiment.

 

 

Investigating Coins: Ever wonder what to do with those mismatched socks we all seem to have floating around? You can use them for an easy Math Station! Fill the socks with different coins. Students reach in the sock, choose a coin and try to identify the coin they're holding just by the feel

of it. The student pulls the coin out of the sock to check their guess.  It doesn't get much easier than this. Possible Extensions: Coin Rubbings and Coin Matching Games.  

 

 

 

Penny Count: Estimation - How many pennies will fit inside Lincoln's head?  Make copies of a silhouette of Abraham Lincoln in 5 different sizes. Have a large jar of pennies available. Students estimate how many pennies will fit in Lincoln's head, then write their name and estimate on a chart. Students then use the pennies to fill Lincoln's silhouette and see how close their estimate was to the actual amount. Use a different size silhouette for each day of the week. Students can also do this activity with a silhouette of George Washington estimating how many cotton balls would fit on Washington's wig! 

 

Symmetry Stars: Use large cardboard star shapes to combine the study of symmetry and American symbols. Cut star shapes from cardboard in a variety of sizes. Make them large enough for Kindergarten students to trace and cut. Cut the cardboard star template exactly in half. Show students how to fold paper in half and place the edge of the cut star template exactly on the fold. They trace the "star" and cut it out. When opened, the shape they see is a symmetrical star. This is a fun project to do with red, white and blue themed papers.

 

 A patriotic program for parents is a great culmination and celebration of all your students have learned this month!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February Booklist

Here's a list of great books to help you celebrate the red, white and blue!



Is it I pledge allegiance to the flag? Or I led a pigeon to the flag? This picture book helps kids understand the meaning of the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Duck For President by Doreen Cronin

Duck decides to hold an election to replace Farmer Brown but soon finds out it's a lot of hard work. so he runs for governor instead. Good book to tie into a discussion of the electoral process.



The Liberty Bell by Lloyd G. Douglas

One of a series of Welcome Books: American Symbols



America: A Patriotic Primer by Lynne Cheney

A is for America that land that we love. B is for the birthday of this country of ours.

 



 

President's Day by Anne Rockwell

This is a hybrid book of fiction/non fiction that gives facts about presidents through a fictional story about a school play.

 

George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra

From battling toothaches while fighting the British to having rotten teeth removed by his dentist, George Washington suffered all his life with tooth problems, yet he NEVER had a set of wooden teeth!