Follow those footprints!

 

The children waited excitedly outside the classroom door for me to arrive on Monday 3/18. (On Friday I used a small sponge and painted a trail of green footprints in the room.) I asked the children if they were ready to see if the leprechaun had been in our room. I told them they could take the little guy home. I asked where they'd keep him and what green foods they'd feed him. They were bubbling with excitement. When I opened the door they squealed at the sight of tiny footprints, pennies and fake gold coins strewn about the room. They tracked the footprints. 

 

 

They did the Irish jig (bells attached).

 

The students assembled the shamrock A-B-Cs on the floor hoping the leprechaun would walk their trail. They chose two strands of colored tinsel and compared sizes long/short. Then they tossed the rainbow into the air. They rolled in it, covered themselves with it, laughed and had a good time. 

 

They "fed" the leprechaun different lengths of beads (hand/eye coordination).

 

And Nicole had a fit when she discovered the leprechaun had used the bathroom and left his footprints on the toilet tissue, back of the toilet, and the sink.

 

It was such an exciting and fun day. The kids looked for clues all day long.

 

Now, scroll back up and take a look at Nicole's footwear. Her mom called me that night and asked if I had given the kids pennies and gold from the leprechaun. Hmmm, no not really, just a  piece of fake gold on their rainbow/shamrock artwork. Her mom had a fit. "She will apologize for stealing first thing in the morning! When I was getting her ready for bed, her boots were loaded with pennies. I don't even know how she could have walked in them all day."

 

I laughed so hard and told her it was a mistake, and that what I had said to the class was, "Oh, look, the leprechaun has been here, let's go in and get his gold." I negelected to say, "And collect it in this container." So of course they thought finders keepers.

 

I can only imagine who else will come to school tomorrow with a handful of pennies to return. It is fun being five years old. This is one memory making holiday for my students. We also made a trap to catch the leprechaun, but of course, he escaped and left lots of treasure for us to examine: golden numbers, gold spoons, gold rocks, gold necklaces and sparkly earrings for the teacher.