St. Patrick's Day Fun

We'll take any excuse to have a fun day of learning, coloring and crafting. We took the whole school day to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Most of my students had never heard of this holiday or knew what a leprechaun was, and thought a shamrock was a flower... so the day was enlightening for all. It can be difficult to get my autism classroom to complete or enjoy writing and cutting activities (due to their underdeveloped pincer grasps and overall motor development), but make it a fun and colorful activity and they are right on board!


Decorating the classroom was the first thing on the list, and my students were ecstatic to walk into a festive classroom this morning:

*Window decals from Target's dollar section

  

 

One of my favorite activities was actually started the day before so that we would have time to complete all the planned activities. The students got to connect paper chains, assemble pots of gold, and add a little sparkle!

  

  

Ms. Wright was our glitter glue expert!

The students were so excited with the final product, and loved seeing them hung from the ceiling! 

We also had a blast writing about what we would do if we were a leprechaun. I got quite the variety of answers from my out-of-the-box-thinkers.

"If I were a leprechaun I would sing like a leprechaun." "...I would count all of my gold."

 

Another fun craft we did was creating wish rainbows! It took awhile for my students to comprehend the idea of being "granted wishes", but we eventually made the connection when a leprechaun was described as Spring's Santa Claus.

  

The students wrote their 6 wishes on each rainbow paper strip.

  

I did not have a chance to snap shots of all the worksheets, but my students practiced word families, rhyming, syllables, and simple addition with St. Patrick's themed activity sheets!

  

And, of course, there is no better way to wrap up a classroom holiday celebration than with PAINT! It is easily one of the most exciting, yet terrifying activities to be done in any kindergarten classroom. However, I try to whip out the acrylics at least once a week. For my population of students, painting isn't just a fun activity, it is also therapeutic and soothing for them, as the texture soothes many of their individual sensory needs.

Modeling how to place wet, sticky hands onto the paper.
 

My assistant teacher, Ms. Bryant being a brave superstar and handling the paint.

"....And we chose to do paint on a day that the schedule was wack why???"

 

Ta-da!

Whew! We made quite the mess, but despite a some tears and a drippy green classroom, we had a great Tuesday celebrating St. Patrick's Day! A fun and messy day= instructional content remembered. Onto the next one!