Those Pesky Leprechauns!

One of the best parts of being a teacher is creating magic for the kids.  Holidays are a fabulous opportunity for this and with today being St. Patrick's Day, well, let's just say......

magic was made!

A couple of my kiddos created a leprechaun trap today before heading off to school.  They were so excited and spent about 2 hours working on it!  At this point, while I was impressed with their ability to stick with an activity for that long, I was a bit skeptical on whether or not they really believed the leprechauns were going to come.  I mean, these are third and fourth grade boys.  Who don't believe in the tooth fairy.  Or the Easter Bunny.  Or even Santa.  But, realizing that at the very least I'd be able to make some magic for my younger students, I upset the trap, stole all the pennies being used as 'bait' and sprinkled green and gold glitter.....on my carpet. (I should insert here that I have a love/hate relationship with glitter.  I love how it can complete a project but I absolutely HATE the mess it creates!)  I also typed up a little poem from the leprechaun himself.

When my kindergarteners got back from school they were, as I expected, very excited to see that a leprechaun had been in our room.  As my older students started to trickle in, they were pretty excited too.  Then I went to pick up the boys who had built the trap.  They were hardly even on the bus before asking about the trap and when they got back, were so excited to see that they had almost caught a leprechaun.  I think what shocked me the most was when their parents came to pick them up, they just had to tell them all about the trap!  (the best part was the looks on the parent's faces as they tried to figure out how on earth their child really believed that a leprechaun was real!)

And I have to say, the treat the 'leprechaun' left was delicious!

Our version of a

"Shamrock Shake"

1 scoop vanilla ice cream

Sprite (add extra food coloring to make it more green)

Whipped Cream

Gold (or rainbow) sprinkles

The best part of the day? 

"Ms. Jessica, you always make things so much fun!" ~ 2nd grade girl

Don't you just love holidays? :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

WAAAY BEYOND EXCITED!

Pretty much anyone who teaches kindergarten has heard of Deanna Jump.  She's practically a legend for her creative and cute (and highly educational!) thematic units.  She has been posting her stuff on Teachers Pay Teachers for awhile now and is a top seller.  Recently she hit 1,000 followers on her blog and decided to offer a giveaway of ALL her stuff PLUS anything she creates in the future.  Well ladies, I'm way beyond excited to announce that

I AM ONE OF THE WINNERS!!! 

I'm sure my neighbors are still wondering what was going on in my apartment today with all the screaming that was happening! :)  I am so beyond excited!  I don't win things.  In fact, I have never won anything in my life (well, except maybe bingo once or twice in grade school).  I cannot believe that the first thing I win is such an amazing prize!  My kiddos are going to be so excited when they see some of her activities.  She is simply an amazing teacher.  Thank you Deanna for offering such an awesome giveaway!

In other news, it's Valentine's Day and I seem to be missing that crucial element to having a wonderful Valentine's Day:  a man.  Nonetheless, I am still having a great Valentine's Day.  Between winning Deanna's giveaway, Caribou Coffee being BOGO and that bottle of wine sitting on my kitchen counter, it's been a great day and going to be an even better night. 

I'm off to enjoy a home-cooked meal with the roomie, drown myself in a bottle of wine and settle in to watch The Bachelor.  Let's see what crazy Michelle has planned for us this week! :)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! :)