In addition to mixing the color green throughout the week, we also had some St. Patrick's Day trickery, and some rather deep sharing about "pride" and being "proud."
Above are the Leprechaun shoes we managed to catch in our shamrock wire that the children set up near their Leprechaun traps. You may be wondering what all this is about Leprechaun traps. It all started last year when we read the book:
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After reading this book the kids were inspired to make traps, and it had brought on so much fun, mystery and magic that we had to do it again. To see last years fun, click on the link below:
This year the weather is very different from the warm spring weather we had last year, so we had to set up our traps inside.
We first started with an assortment of materials the children might want to use to entice the Leprechaun.
From the moment the children sat at the table it was a flurry of excitement and activity.
They were given boxes to use for their traps, though if I had more time, I am curious what kind of traps they would have created from scratch.
Some children put glue on acorns, shells and pine cones, then sprinkled them with gold glitter.
This was meant to trick the Leprechaun into thinking it was "real gold."
Others spent time painting their boxes and filling them with whatever they thought would attract their Leprechaun to their trap.
Some children used tissue boxes, and placed gold doilies over the holes so that the Leprechaun would fall through the hole.
After the traps were ready to go they set them up on a shelf near the window and tried to make it inviting for a Leprechaun.
Of course they wanted to put out the green water they had made, "I'm sure he will like that, maybe he will drink it!"E.P.B
"Yeah, and then he will turn green." J.P.
Sure enough that tricky Leprechaun came, and because we managed to capture his shoes, each of the children were given a piece of his lucky gold. My daughter asked me, "Why do big people not get gold coins?" Before I could answer, she answered for herself, "Oh, because they are so big they scare the Leprechaun away." I thought that was a pretty good answer.
Turns out, our Leprechaun's name is Lenny, and he is a bit of a trickster. He turned the toilet bowl water green as well as put an Easter egg dying tablet in the faucet so our water came out Green as well!
Discovering that Lenny had been there.
Discovering their gold coins.
"Hey Danielle, why are his shoes so small, how's he gonna wear them?"
True enough, they were rather small for the average foot.
Growing up myself with an Irish Grandmother, St. Patrick's Day was actually and still is a time to gather with family. When you look into the reason the holiday is celebrated, in short, St. Patrick driving "the snakes" out of Ireland, it is a hard concept for these little ones to swallow.
However, I always like to share why we celebrate holidays and the cultural significance, and it came to me to talk about "Irish Pride." This is a time for those with Irish heritage to show their pride, and so we talked about what "pride" means as well as what it means when others say they are "proud" of them.
It is interesting, as adults we say these things, the kids know it is a good thing when we say we are proud of them, but in conversation when I asked them if they know what the word meant other than it was a "good thing," they didn't know.
So, each day this week we discussed in Circle what the children were proud of in themselves. I think this honors on a personal level and an age appropriated level what this holiday is about, of course in addition to Leprechauns, wearing green, and eating the Irish Soda Bread that we made using my Mother's recipe: Patti's- St. Patty's Day Irish Soda Bread Recipe
Below is a list of the things the children said they were proud of:
J.D- "I'm proud of making people laugh."
H.S.- "Mom, I'm proud of presents for going potty on the toilet."
D.C-F. "I feel about my alien that glows in the dark."
G.G- "I'm proud about my skeleton that glows in my room."
-"But isn't that scary?"-E.P.H.
G.G.-"No just a tiny eye."
-"But, I like scary stuff."-H.S.
G.G.-"No, I like him, my skeleton guy.'
A.M.N.R.- " I like jokes, I'm proud of jokes!"
-"Would you like to share one?"-Danielle
A.M.N.R.-"Why do chickens sit on eggs? Because they don't have chairs!"
J.B.-"I'm proud about going to Danielle's."
-"Thank you J.B., that was a nice thing to share."-Danielle
E.P.H.-"I am proud I have three night lights."
K.S."I'm proud of birthdays."
E.M.-"I like songs, being at Danielle's"
K.S." I am proud that my Papa cooks my dinner."
E.P.H.-"I feel proud that I go to school and do arts and crafts."
S.G.-"I am proud that I do great arts and crafts. I am proud I dance well."
E.P.B.-"I am proud of Mama, I am proud of belly dancing (proceeds to lift up shirt and shake her belly), and I am proud of jumping and making paint."
M.N.-"I'm proud I am four, did you know I am four?"
J.P-"I am proud that I have a story about God called "Old Turtle." I'm glad that my mommy comes in at night and checks on me."
S.E.- "I'm proud of basketball and baseball and riding scooters."
When his brother L.E. was asked he said:" Nothing." I asked would he like to add to that, he shook his head yes, and with a big smile and laughing he said "nothing!" clearly he is proud of being a good joker because he made us all laugh!
