Can You Find Lucky the Leprechaun?
Part 1
Sometimes you just have to do things that are fun to make your own self enjoy your job. The stress of multiple meetings, testy parents, and paperwork can wear on you. To help myself enjoy work, I do something just for FUN that the kids will love because it makes me happy!
So this week I bought two leprechauns at Hobby Lobby, a fun hat, and some shamrock stickers. I cut out a bunch of shamrocks die cuts and a sign that says, “Where is Lucky the Leprechaun?”–all of which I stuck to the wall. I hid the little leprechaun statue outside in a small bush near my door. The students have been looking all over for it. They needed a little mystery and fun before spring break! Truth be told. So do I. After two days no one has found the leprechaun. We will see what tomorrow holds.
Part 2
Okay so I normally go overboard! This week is no exception. I brainstormed one morning while fixated on my leprechaun scavenger hunt idea. I made some clues for my classroom so the students could eventually be led to the leprechaun and his pot of gold. Here are my clues. Maybe you can use these and adapt them to your room to make your own classroom hunt. I taped each clue in succession onto different items to help students find the leprechaun.
- Dear Children, Is the leprechaun too old or is he just hiding his gold? Take some TIME to follow the clues he left behind. (hide near clock)
- Don’t give him an inch! He might be under the bench. (hide under bench)
- Where does a leprechaun live? Under a rainbow or does he share a house with a mouse? (side under a computer mouse)
- Sneaky little guy! Could he have left some of his stash near the trash? (hide near trash can)
- Is he able to hide under the table? (hide under table)
- Beware he might even be under a chair! (hide under chair)
- At night he likes to lie on a pillow and sometimes he can be found looking out the window. (hide near window))
- Oh no! Danger! He likes to climb on a cord that’s near the board. (hide near board)
- Ah! You caught him!!Leprechauns want you to show you care by taking time to share. (Share all of the gold with your class.)
I had two leprechaun searches going. One outside in a bush for anyone who walked by (with no written clues) and another in my room for my students. The clues in my room I taped to their respective spots. I used Rolos chocolate candies in a small plastic cup for the leprechauns pot of gold. In essence your really could do any search hunt with these clues. Have fun and enjoy!
Part 3–after the hunts…
The outdoor hunt, which was for anyone who walked by, needed some extra information for students to find the actual leprechaun. I hid him in too difficult a place. I didn’t think it would be that hard. I came outside the last hour of the day and gave the students oral clues to help them find him. I gave the other students looking at the same time some shamrock stickers–not quite a pot of gold but still fun for all. I did give the winner some “gold”. If the students actually searching outside had been my students, I would have put more thought into making up written clues.
The classroom hunt took about 10 minutes and we still had time to do my main lesson. I would do the indoor one again for which I posted the clues above.
The Results are In!
I promised you results from the strawberry jars a while back. While the strawberry jars did not stink near as badly as the rice jar experiment I did previously, they didn’t reveal quite as important a message in my opinion. You could again definitely tell a difference in the scent of the jars, but the inside of the jars looked very similar. When I started this experiment all of the jars had fresh strawberries, so it is certainly possible there could have been a difference in bacteria etc. on the strawberries. If I were to do this again, I would have used frozen strawberries to make sure this wasn’t a factor. What surprised me the most is that the love jar smelled worse, in my opinion than the hate jar. There is probably some explanation for this. If I were to use fruit again, I would have used the blueberries. Also, if it was the first time for the experiment, I would have used the rice because they all smelled different and looked different reflective of the words love and hate.
Here are the backs of the jars pictured in the same order.
The 2024 Creativity Challenge…
On January 1st, I shared with you an idea you could use in your classroom to start the year off. Students could imagine the numbers in 2024 to be other items besides numbers. I am really proud of some of the results from this activity. See how their creativity blossomed….
left to right top to bottom… shield, potato, fish (look how perspective was used as this student turned the page), archer, hourglass, hotel and white beach, hanger (again page was turned as this student used perspective).
When I taught this lesson, I used an idea from a previous year that I got from the Carly and Adam website.
Happy 2024!
I am personally looking forward to this year in many ways! Last year, I saw the idea somewhere to make something out of the numbers 2023. I decided to do something similar with some of my beginning of the year lessons this year. What can you create from the numbers 2024? This I great for children’s creative thinking. Try different fonts on your computer and see if it sparks different creative thinking ideas. What if students make a reflection from the numbers 2024? What if students make pictures of the 2024 together? What if they use the numbers individually? What if they turn 2024 sideways? What if they turn it upside down? Do they see different pictures? You will likely have a child say they they messed up. Sometimes those are the best opportunities for imagination!
Enjoy your year! 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving with a Quick Lesson!
This year for a quick and easy lesson, I showed a quick video about thankfulness by Kid President. Next, we discuss what thankfulness even means. Children aren’t certain on this I have come to realize from listening to their answers. Next, I have students draw pictures of certain things they are thankful for that I can describe such as these…
Name something you are thankful for
1.that is red.
2.that is in the shape of a triangle.
3.that is scratchy. (usually kids want a description of scratchy)
4.that is soft.
5.that is the shape of a triangle.
6.that you can’t see.
7. that makes you happy.
8. that makes your teacher happy.
Add to these or change them around and make them your own. This is sure to make your students brain juices flow!
Step Up your Summer Bubble Experience!
This was students’ favorite experience with bubbles this summer. We used the Camp Invention curriculum called Invention Celebration. One of the lessons had students make bubbles on a piece of paper. The bubbles lasted longer than normal bubbles and had a more dense consistency. This allowed them to pop in a perfect circle on their paper making an imprint.
The bubble solution had a unique consistency. We used an entire small bottle of Dawn dish soap in a bucket that holds about 1.5 gallons. Then we put two small bottles of glycerin in the bucket and filled the water the rest of the way up. We let the solution sit over night. Next, we. put three separate pint containers on the table with some of the solution. In each solution, we put a spoonful of acrylic paint and stirred. This colored the bubble solution. Then students enjoyed blowing bubbles with their bubble wands!
How Can You Build a Quick, Easy Barometer?
I did this blindly–not really knowing if it would work. I was in search of interesting weather activities and thought I could make this barometer work. When the air pressure is high the arrow points above the middle mark. When the pressure is low the straw points below the middle mark. Here’s the one I made at home. The best thing is that it really works!!!!
A few easy materials:
1.jar
2. rubber band
3. balloon
4. straw
5, tape
6. paper/index card
7. ruler ( and/or grid paper)
8. tape
After I built this I had my doubts about it working. I build one at home first. Get a jar (larger jars are better but I used baby food jars because I had some on hand). Snip off the bottom part of a balloon so that you have a wider surface to stretch latex over the mouth of a jar. Get the balloon as smooth as possible across the lid and put a rubber band around the balloon to seal in the air as tightly as possible.
Here’s the barometer I made at school.
Some places say that you should use double sided tape to attach the straw, but I used regular Scotch tape, and it worked fine. Cut the end of the stew into a pointed shape so that it works as a pointer towards the marked paper. You can incorporate measurement and be as precise about it as you like. With the barometer I made at home I just build the barometer and put a mark where the stars was pointing after I first built it. Then I put another mark about a cm above and below the initial mark. I found mm graph paper online as a free download and used that at school. This makes for a great measurement discussion. Enjoy building your very own barometer!