St. Patrick's Day FUN!

Every year in kindergarten, we read books about leprechauns and then set leprechaun traps to try and catch the mischievous little things! Some of my students had me as their kindergarten teacher and excitedly asked, "Do the leprechauns come to 2nd grade, too?!?". I sadly explained, that they usually only came to the kindergarten classrooms, because 5 and 6 year olds do not set very good traps and they could easily be escaped. On March 17, I decided that I would not "destroy" the room as the leprechauns had done in kindergarten. I would simply move desks. As I started to turn desks around I had an idea - spring cleaning!!! The leprechauns would empty out their desks! This was a great opportunity to get everything out of their desks (including orange peels and other assortments of food - gross). The kids were so excited. No matter what grade I teach for the rest of my career, I will find a way to incorporate the leprechauns. Many of the students probably don't believe, but I realized for many of them that this was one of the few opportunities they had in a day to be a carefree child. Unfortunately the reality is, as it is in many elementary classrooms today, I have students that come to school without their basic needs being met. They are often tired, hungry, and unclean. They do not experience an abundance of joy and carefree time at home. Again, this is the case in many of our classrooms. I am going to continue to be conscious of it and address it the best I can in my room. We did do some educational things about St. Patrick's Day as well on March 17. For example, we made a really neat Flip Book. Each page had a different language arts activity on it. I originally had pictures of the flip book on this post, but quickly deleted them and added the picture of our classroom as I reflected on student impact. While the process to obtain National Board certification was a tedious one, it truly taught me to reflect on everything I do and how it will impact students. The leprechauns coming was the most impactful thing that happened in our classroom on March 17.