St. Patrick's Day Celebration plus a Meet-up!

Wahoo for Spring Break! Today is an inclement weather day that we never had to take, so my Spring Break started a day early :) Can't beat that, can you?

I'm heading to Kansas City, KS tomorrow for the Midwest Meet-up! If you're in the area we'd love to see you there (no blog necessary!). I think we've decided on the Chili's restaurant, so come have lunch with us!

Then we're off to Bronson, MO to hit Silver Dollar City's new roller coaster - my husband and kids are thrilled! Pregnant me will have to sit that one out - and somehow manage to resist all the goodies while I'm waiting for them! We've never been to KS or MO, so if you know of any places that we just shouldn't miss out on, please Rustle Up a Response below and let me know! I am about to hit up the Food Network website to see if "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" covered any good places to eat in those locations lol!


Before I get all wrapped up in packing and cleaning house, I wanted to share our St. Patrick's Day celebration with you! Our classroom was all decked out for the occasion:

 This leprechaun on our door was a big hit with the kids!

 I love making our reading center cozy with a themed table cloth (nothing fancy, just a yard of fabric) and some seasonal books.

 I found this cute rug for our door at the Target Dollar Spot - the kids loved it, even though it didn't have all the colors.

Our Math wall had my Leprechaun Ten Frames on display - the kids love it when I put a new set up!


Each kiddo who made a leprechaun trap got one of these BragTags for their necklace:

Here's a collage of the various traps - I was very impressed with how elaborate they were - and my one little buddy who comes in a bit dirty, without homework and never seems to get a whole lot of interaction at home came in with one of the neatest traps - and proceeded to excitedly tell me about how he and his dad constructed it together! It really made my day to know that this little assignment provided such special time for him to be with his father one-on-one like that!

 
 The insides of the trap were also entertaining, especially the one with this picture inside:

How's that for leprechaun enticement?!

In the afternoon we set up all of the traps around the room:

Once everything was set up we headed for the computer room, and when we came back that leprechaun has upset all the traps, scattered shamrock confetti everywhere, and knocked over all of the green chairs in our classroom! I would have taken a picture, but I had to ride herd on the kids, who were so excited that they alerted the 2nd grade class across the hall who came rushing over to see if we had actually caught a leprechaun!

Once everyone settled down we discovered that the tricky leprechaun had gotten to our snacks! We were going to have a special treat since we finally got everyone over the first hump of sight words:

The leprechaun opened all the treats and turned them green!

 

We also made leprechaun necklaces (bought at 1/2 price after St. Patrick's day last year so they were $4 for the materials to make 30!)

Of course we had to tie in some writing as well, look at what my friends would do if they actually caught a leprechaun! Note, remember I'm in 1st grade this year, so this is way more than I would expect from a kinder. Also, this was a 20 minute activity - no rough draft and only minimal editing, just writing off the cuff.

 This little one has so many ideas she forgot to make each a complete sentence, but I loved her enthusiasm!

 Hmm, this one seemed to over rely on "I would" but, all in all I was pretty impressed that she was able to get this much down - and she remembered punctuation most of the time!

I see I need to do a quick lesson on "in" versus "and" as well as "git" versus "get". This one is very hard for me since I don't have the Oklahoma accent that my kiddos do. To me, the difference seems perfectly obvious, but most of my students have difficulties with their accent affecting their spelling.

 Another little one who needs a refresher on not starting sentences with "and" lol! But, I love the part about living "Happily ever after"!

Hope you enjoyed this look into our St. Patrick's Day classroom celebration!