St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with the following ideas and activities for your classroom!

Just some quick facts about the history of St. Patrick's Day to share with your children!

St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday celebrated all around the globe to honor the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick.

When Is St. Patrick's Day?

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated each year on March 17th.

Who Was Saint Patrick?

Even though Saint Patrick the patron saint of Ireland and one of the most celebrated religious figures around the world, the factual information about his life and times is quite vague. Most information about St. Patrick has been twisted, embellished, or simply made up over centuries by storytellers, causing much ambiguity about the real life of St. Patrick. However, there are a some elements of his story about which most scholars accept to be true.

According to Coilin Owens, Irish literature expert and Professor Emeritus of English at George Mason University, Saint Patrick is traditionally thought to have lived "between 432-461 A.D., but more recent scholarship moves the dates up a bit." At the age of sixteen he was kidnapped from his native land of the Roman British Isles by a band pirates, and sold into slavery in Ireland. Saint Patrick worked as a shepherd and turned to religion for solace. After six years of slavery he escaped to the Irish coast and fled home to Britain.

While back in his homeland, Patrick decided to become a priest and then decided to return to Ireland after dreaming that the voices of the Irish people were calling him to convert them to Christianity.

After studying and preparing for several years, Patrick traveled back to Ireland as a Christian missionary. Although there were already some Christians living in Ireland, St. Patrick was able to bring upon a massive religious shift to Christianity by converting people of power. Says Prof. Owens, "[St. Patrick] is credited with converting the nobles; who set an example which the people followed."

But Patrick's desire to spread of Christianity was not met without mighty opposition. Prof. Owens explains, "Patrick ran into trouble with the local pagan priesthood, the druids: and there are many stories about his arguments with them as well as his survival of plots against them." He laid the groundwork for the establishment of hundreds of monasteries and churches that eventually popped up across the Irish country to promote Christianity.

Patrick's mission in Ireland is said to have lasted for thirty years. It is believe he died in the 5th century on March 17, which is the day St. Patrick's Day is commemorated each year.

The first year St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in America in 1737 in Boston, Massachusetts. The first official St. Patrick's Day parade was held in New York City in 1766. As the saying goes, on this day "everybody is Irish!" Over 100 U.S. cities now hold Saint Patrick's Day parades.

Alecia Dixon is a freelance contributor. Laura Young is editor of Crafts and Holidays & Fun on Kaboose.com.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Clover

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March Calendar of Events and Facts!

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A Day in the Life of a St. Patrick's Day Pre-K Classroom!

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Leprechaun Traps for Your Classroom!

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Leprechaun Art Hands

St. Patrick's Day Tot Kit!

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This is a rather large file and I already have it downloaded. So, if you'd like for me to send it to you by email as attachments, just let me know!

St. Patrick's Day Scavenger Hunt!

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That Sneaky Little Leprechaun!

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Holiday Seasons

Holidays and Fairness

The October–December push
The three national holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are the ones that most often appear in early childhood programs. They bring pleasure to many families and staff, as well as to children. However, they also pose a range of challenges for many families. Whether or not to include any of them in your curriculum, and what activities to use if you do, requires thoughtful decision making.


Christmas
In our multicultural society, Christmas, although important to many people, is still not everyone’s holiday. For children and families from other groups—be they Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, pagan, atheist, or anything else—Christmas can be a difficult time. For almost all families, the commercialization of the holiday, with its pressures to buy, decorate, and entertain, adds tremendous complication to already overloaded and busy lives. How can you address Christmas in your program in a way that is supportive and fair to all?



Learning about each other’s December holidays
Begin by finding out from families and staff members which December holiday(s), if any, they celebrate, and what they might like to share about their personal tradition. If the people in your program are culturally diverse, this could mean you will be learning about a number of different December holidays. In a more culturally homogeneous class, it could mean learning about the fascinating variety of ways families all celebrate the same holiday.

Make a plan for how you will teach about the various traditions in your classroom. For example, have a school party with every family sharing a special holiday food, song, or ritual. If family members cannot come into the classroom, ask them for a story or song that you can share with the children yourself. Help the children explore the similarities and differences among family holiday celebrations—whether it is the same holiday or different holidays. The aim is for children to understand that “Families are different. Each family’s way of celebrating works for them.”

If you use this approach, be very sensitive to children who celebrate differently from the majority of the children. Otherwise, it is easy for their holiday to sound like just a variation on the dominant culture’s event. It is the teacher’s responsibility (not the child’s) to clarify the distinctions. For example, in one school, most of the children told stories about their Christmas holiday customs; the one Jewish child talked about Chanukah. Later, several of the children (and some adults) wished the child’s family a “happy Jewish Christmas.”

by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards

Below are a few Seasonal Activities that help celebrate the winter season while keeping a non-biased theme in your classroom setting

Snowman Matching Game
This file folder matching game focuses on color recognition.

Materials: File folder, cut outs of twenty snowmen, twenty colored scarfs for the snowmen and a laminater or clear contact paper.

Description: Teachers cut out the snowmen and scarves then place a different colored scarf on each snowman and place ten of them on the file folder. I use the colors: red, orange, green, yellow, blue, violet, pink, brown, black, and white.  Now, laminate the file folder. Next, take the other snowmen and scarves and laminate them separately.  Cut them out and place them in an envelope on the back  of the file folder for a matching game. 

Comments: You can do this with fire trucks, turkeys, bears, letters, and  different size pumpkins.








Language: What Should I Wear?
Children use weather and clothing vocabulary as they relate clothing choices to weather during this early childhood activity.

Materials: Dress-up clothes for various weather conditions: mittens, winter hats, sunglasses, rain boots, snow boots, sandals, sweater, sun hat, raincoat, winter coat, scarf, bathing suit, etc.

Description: Choose children in turn to be 'dressed up' or dress teacher or a life sized doll.  Teacher describes the weather conditions by saying, "Ooh, I woke up this morning and I looked out the window and it was COLD and SNOWY. What should (child's name) wear?"

Children can call out suggestions and help dress the chosen child in the appropriate outfit.  Children get quite pleased and giggly if they're allowed to 'correct' the teacher's incorrect suggestions too.



                                             

Winter Scenes in Southern Climates
This craft activity provides students an opportunity to create a winter scene that will illustrate a snowy day. 

Materials: Old Christmas cards with outdoor scenes, white glue and iridescent white glitter.

Description: This is especially helpful for students who are not able to experience snow because their part of the county is too warm for snow.  I have the students select, from old Christmas cards, an outdoor scene.  They brush on a water and glue mixture over the whole picture. Then sprinkle the card with the iridescent white glitter.  They are amazed at the results.  You may hear "It's like magic rain."
This craft helps capture the magic!


                                     
                                             

 Sock Snowmen
Older preschool and kindergarten learn about estimation and have fun making a snowman that they can enjoy during this season.

Materials: sand or handmade playdough, white adult socks, colored children's socks, hot glue gun, hot 
glue sticks, rubberbands, jingle bells (optional), toothpicks, black and orange 
paint. various fabric pieces, various colored buttons. The hot glue gun is for adult use only!

Description: Place a white sock in a 8 oz. drinking cup, opening the top of the 
sock and folding it over the rim of the cup.  With a 1 cup measuring cup have 
the children estimate how many cups of sand it will take to fill the sock in order to make a snowman body. Have each child fill their sock about ¼ of the way and put a rubber band around it.
Repeat this process two more times to create the snowman body.
Have each child count how many cups of sand it took to make their snowman.

After making each part of the body, with the rubberbands, hot glue around the rubber band and squish it down. Fold the remainder of the white sock down to create the rim of the hat. Take a children's colored sock, cutting the toe out and cut strips up to where the cuff of the sock begins. Place over the top of the white sock to make a colored hat.

Rubberband the colored hat where the strips end and the cuff of the sock begins to create fringe like strips hanging off of the hat.

Glue under the colored hat to attach it to the white rim part of the hat, leaving some white showing. Have the children paint a face on the front of the snowman, and cut strips of fabric.  Tie the strips around the neck to create a scarf. Then
cut strips at the end of the fabric to create fringe on the scarf.

Have the children color the pointy part of a toothpick orange with an orange marker, and glue on as the nose.  Place 3 buttons down the front of the snowman and add bells if desired.
 


                                                         


Wintertime
Enjoy this action winter poem suggesting that you make up hand movements while listening to nature of waltz type music. 

 Winter Time Poem
  by Mary Ryer  Icy fingers, icy toes, 
 Bright red cheeks and bright red nose. 
 Watch the snowflakes as they fall, 
 Try so hard to count them all. 
 Build a snowman way up high, 
 See if he can touch the sky. 
 Snow forts, snowballs, angels, too, 
 In the snow, so white and new. 
 Slip and slide and skate so fast. 
 Wintertime is here at last.

The Anti-Bias Holiday

Many early childhood educators have questions about how to approach the holidays.

The following text is excerpted from Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves.by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards.  

The October–December Push
The three national holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are the ones that most often appear in early childhood programs. They bring pleasure to many families and staff, as well as to children. However, they also pose a range of challenges for many families. Whether or not to include any of them in your curriculum, and what activities to use if you do, requires thoughtful decision making.


Halloween
Many children have fun every year celebrating Halloween in their neighborhoods, schools, and early childhood programs. At the same time, however, its pagan origins and associations with witches, ghosts, and evil make Halloween problematic for some families, including some fundamentalist Christian, Jehovah’s Witness, and immigrant families. Still other families do not like the traditional gorging on sugar that follows trick-or-treating, or they no longer allow their children to go out at all because of their fears about possible harm. Commercialism also has turned Halloween into a time when parents feel pressured to buy expensive candy and ready-made costumes that sometimes are inconsistent with their values or budgets. In addition, children under 4 may find some of the costumes frightening. For one or more of these reasons, some early childhood programs decide not to include Halloween in their curriculum or to modify how they do Halloween activities.


Designing new ways to do Halloween activities
Take into account approaches and concerns of specific families, adapt your activities, or create new ones.

• Involve children in making Halloween masks (and perhaps costumes). Display the finished masks in the classroom or let children wear their costumes for a parade at school. Besides helping to reduce the emphasis on commercial costumes and masks, this activity is a way of lessening the fears many preschoolers have of the masked figures that appear on Halloween.
   
• Provide a Halloween substitute. If some families do not want their children engaged in any traditional Halloween activities, consider creating an alternative celebration. For example, substitute dress-up costumes that children put together from the program’s costume and scarf box and have a parade.

Cooking To Learn: Pumpkin Seeds

What do you do when all the pumpkins have been carved? Gather up the seeds and make a tasty snack! Pumpkin seeds are a good source of protein and fiber. You can store toasted seeds in an airtight container at room temperature for one to two weeks, or refrigerate for up to three months. Children can add as much flavor as they like when preparing this easy snack.

Ingredients
1 cup pumpkin seeds* (One large pumpkin usually yields one cup of seeds. Use sugar/pie pumpkins, if available.)
1 T olive oil
Seasoning of choice: salt, garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, curry powder, or grated Parmesan cheese
*Butternut, acorn, and other squash seeds can be prepared this same way.
Directions

1. Pull seeds from the pumpkin pulp, using fingers. Rinse seeds in a colander.
2. Scrub off any remaining pulp with a vegetable brush.
3. Spread cleaned seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet to dry overnight.
4. Place seeds in a microwave-safe baking dish or pie plate. Drizzle olive oil over the seeds, then toss.
5. Place dish in microwave and heat on high for 2 minutes. Take out the dish and stir seeds. Return to microwave and continue to cook seeds in 1-minute increments, stirring in between, until seeds reach desired crispness and turn light gold in color.
6. Sprinkle the toasted seeds with seasoning(s) of your choice. Toss to coat. Let the seeds cool about 5 minutes before eating.

Adapted from Teaching Young Children 2010 (4) 1: 32.

Here are a few picture-word cards for Fall themes. Click on the link to download a variety of sizes for free!

http://prekinders.com/2011/10/fall-picture-word-cards/#ixzz1c0qKcDEF