Monday, March 14, 2011

Integrating Culture: St. Patrick's Day

The stores are ready and have tons of green and people are scheduling parties. While St. Patrick's Day is not a huge party day in the schools, teachers do take a week to do crafts, host scavenger hunts, and teach students about what March 17th is all about.

For the younger children, the perfect book that explains the day is: Hooray for St. Patrick's Day! by Joan Holub. It is a read over and over again for children. It has rhyming and a leprechaun that the readers must spot on each page. It also have a lift and flap for toddlers.


Afterwards, children can make their own leprechaun man. Take green construction paper and make it into a shamrock. Fold the green (or brown construction paper) back and forth to make the folds. Children can do this also. Add mini shamrocks for the hands and feet and a yellow top hat. Emergent writers can write about where they would hide if they were a leprechaun.

For the older children a great book that combines history and folklore is: Mary McLean and the St. Patrick's Day Parade, by Steven Kroll.

After they have had a chance to read about what Mary wishes for, they can take to a creative writing activity where they write about their three wishes.

(The good thing about teachers is that we don't reinvent the wheel, we share. This paper has been in my bag of teaching materials for years.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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