Leprechaun Hat

Today I took my son to the dentist. Like you, I try to take him to the dentist every 6 months, and I also attempt to make sure that he brushes his teeth after breakfast, lunch and before going to bed. Flossing is also part of his dental hygiene. In my opinion, it is important to have a system which reinforces good habits to ones kids, and as they grow older, these habits are still prevalent and part of their routine.

After arriving at home from the dentist, we created a leprechaun hat, beard and eyebrows . This craft was very easy to design, we just needed to print the templates from Today's Mama website, and then assembled it- http://todaysmama.com/2012/03/printable-leprechaun-hat-craft-now-with-more-beard/. I love everything about this craft, it all looked super cute, like a proper leprechaun :)))!!!

Moreover, my son did an activity about St. Patrick's Day Inferencing cards describing green objects from Kari Radovich - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Inferencing. This cards are quite easy for my child to read and comprehend. This was a great activity to practice reading, and enabling him to practice reasoning from facts or evidences and deducing fact based conclusions that should be true.

Another great material I downloaded from TPT was St. Patrick's Day Math Fun with Lucky Leprechaun by Kayla Parker - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Math-Fun-with-Lucky-Leprechaun. My son had a lot of fun doing this exercises which included: problem solving, adding and subtracting in order to find the secret message, coloring, and a game to help the Leprechaun to find his pot of gold. One of many fantastic worksheets to practice maths, and having fun at same time.

I  also downloaded for free on TPT an exercise called St. Patrick's Day Fact and Opinion by Lili Garcia - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Fact-and-Opinion
I do recommend you to download this material as it is very easy for your first grader to read and understand. As well as practicing differentiation between a fact and an opinion.

 Hope you felt inspired by my post today. Enjoy the parade tomorrow and the weekend. Thanks :)!

Fabiana

Shamrock Shake

Hello everyone :)), hope you all had a wonderful day!!!

I saw on Enchanted Learning website (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/stpatrick/rainbowjello/) a rainbow in a cup made from jello. I thought it was a fun and delicious way to enjoy, our already loved, jello.  We used strawberry jello to get the red color, orange jello for orange color, lemon jello for yellow color, lime jello for green color, blueberry jello for blue color, and we mixed strawberry and blueberry jello for purple color. For each jello flavor we used 1 tablespoon of jello and 1/4 cup of hot water.

To make this jello rainbow in a cup, requires patience because it takes about 2 days to finish as you need to refrigerate it each time you add a flavor. We started it yesterday early afternoon, and finished it today. However, it is a great way to teach children to learn to be patient as sometimes things in our lives are beyond our willingness to conclude a job :)). Science and time, in this case, are the controllers of the situation :))). I know most of you, who are parents, may think it is a long task. However, as you know children learn mostly by watching and not by listening.
My son was so happy to finish his jello rainbow in a cup because he wanted to see the result, as well as satisfy his appetite for the jelly :)). He said that all the flavors together tasted delicious!!!!

Today we also learned St. Patrick's Day vocabulary. I downloaded the material shown below for free on TPT from Reading is Love. The vocabulary activity is called St. Patrick's Day Vocabulary Pack: Write the Room and Word/Picture Matching - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Vocabulary-Pack-Write-the-Room-and-WordPicture-Matching

This is a very complete, easy to read and eye-catching illustrations, which made my son very interested and motivated to do the exercises. 

Another great material we worked on yesterday is called St. Patrick's Day from Comp Ed Inc - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day. This material is very useful as it explains the history behind St. Patrick. The language is easy for the kids to read and comprehend. It also has many activities including: drawing, maze, word search, crossword, reading comprehension questions, spelling, patterns, coloring and writing. I highly recommend you to download both of the materials.

The highlight of the day was our shamrock shake. We made ours based on the famous McDonald's shamrock shake.  Before making the shake I designed the shamrock leaf and put the straw in the middle. This craft is super easy to create, and looks adorable. I took the idea from Martha Stewart  webiste - http://www.marthastewart.com/875748/shamrock-straw-toppers

The recipe for the shamrock shake is super easy too. Its simply 2 cups of a very good quality of vanilla ice cream, I used Haagen Dazs, 3/4 cup of milk, 3/4 teaspoon of mint extract, 10 drops of green food coloring, and 2 cubes of ice. Mix all the ingredients for about 3 minutes, and pour the shake in a glass. Decorate it with whip cream and two leaves of mint or cherry. Put the straw and enjoy :)))!!! This shake is so deliciously refreshing and super tasty!!!! My son and I had a great time drinking it this afternoon :))).

Hope you enjoy our post today. Have a great Friday. Thanks :)!

Fabiana