March FUN in your Pre-K, TK, Kindergarten, or 1st Grade Classroom:

It's Almost Time To Prep Your Leprechaun's Gold Shop:

Once Mardi Gras is over and everything is on sale...

Grab Some Mardi Gras Beads: 

They should be on close-out as soon as Mardi Gras is over.  

Use them to stock your Leprechaun Gold Shop and keep it up for a few weeks.  

Stock your shop with plastic jewelry.  My friend made cute store uniforms for the shop clerks to wear.  :)

We just used our puppet stage, but you can also use a small desk.

Even if we don't catch the leprechaun, we can set up a Gold Shop where students can "buy" plastic jewelry with plastic gold coins.

You can use real coins for plastic leprechaun gold.

Students take turns being the clerk and the customer.

Integrate counting, sorting, community helpers, and
IMAGINATION!

  When they are done playing, they return the jewelry to the shop so others may play too.

Make Leprechaun Puddin':

First, check for allergies:
If you have students allergic to milk or lactose, use a milk alternative.
If you have students allergic to ANY NUTS, use vanilla instant pudding 
and a few drops of green food coloring.

Leprechaun Puddin':

 a gallon of milk

 at least 3 large boxes of Jell-o brand instant pistachio pudding,
(Only Jell-o brand turns green when the milk is mixed in.)

a clear glass bowl

a large spoon

small paper cups (3-5 oz size)

plastic spoons

a measuring cup.

  

(Off brands don't work as well.  I recommend buying Jell-o brand instant pistachio pudding because it starts out white and turns green when the milk is stirred in.)  

DO NOT DO THIS ACTIVITY IF YOU HAVE ANY NUT ALLERGIES IN YOUR CLASS.  There are real pistachios in the pudding.  You can replace the milk with a nut-free milk alternative if you have any dairy allergies. Replace the pistachio pudding with vanilla pudding + a few drops of green food coloring hidden at the bottom of the bowl.

While the students are out at recess, open the packages of Jell-o instant pistachio pudding and empty them into a large, clear, glass bowl.  I usually leave green footprints leading to the bowl where we find a note that says "You didn't catch me, but I left you some Leprechaun Puddin'."  

You can find green footprints from Sitspots.com that are made of Velcro so they will stick to most carpets. 

Click Here for the link to the "right footsteps" and 

Click Here for the link to the "left footsteps". 

Just add milk and stir and you will see the magic!"  

As I pour the milk (follow package directions for amount) into the bowl the children will gasp as the white powder turns green!

Stir until it's nice and thick and then spoon some into the cups for the children to enjoy.

Make a Leprechaun Rainbow:

Easy, breezy and quick to prep:  You can download it for FREE by clicking Here.

Here is my sample.

Just added this picture of the kids' work.

Click the image to grab the FREE download.  

For each child, you will need:

 1piece of white construction paper (9" X 12") 

 1 piece of each of the following colors cut to 1 1/2" X 9":  

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

Give each child 1 of each of the pieces above and have them cut the white piece into the shape of a cloud.  Then, they glue the colored strips, in order beginning with red, to the bottom of the cloud.  

I had each child trace the color word below and glue it to the end of the matching colored strip.  They also wrote their name on the line in the oval, traced the dotted letters, and glued them to the cloud.  They look so cute in our classroom.  

These look great and can stay up throughout spring and for Open House.  :)

Here is the FREE Download for your color words and cloud label.  Have FUN.

You can also find a FUN project here where students can "buy" the pieces to create their own unique leprechaun:  CLICK HERE.

Saint Patrick's Day.