Ireland

Last Tuesday we continued our year long partnership with the fourth graders. We celebrated the Irish culture with food, crafts, singing, games and stories. The fourth graders from Mr.Smith’s class were our tour guides. Each student was responsible to guide a group of 2-4 Kindergarten students through five centers.

Each child painted a Blarney Stone and decorated it with glitter. We learned about the Blarney castle that houses the real stone. It is said to give the kisser the gift of blarney (the ability to make clever promises).

Each child listened to the story Fluffy’s Lucky Day by Kate McMullan. Fluffy, the class guinea pig, is excited when a class visitor tells the class about Ireland, from green grass to leprechauns! Other stories were also available for the fourth graders to read to the Kindergartners.  We also read Clever Tom the Leprechaun.  Who is the clever one, Tom or the Leprechaun? 

We continued a traveling suitcase which will house a reflective piece of writing for each student about the country of study.

Today we drew pictures and wrote about what we have learned about Ireland. We drew blarney stones, castles and snack cookies.

The fourth graders taught us a new game, Mr. Fox. We asked the fox what time it was and ran back to the goal when he told us it was "Dinner Time!"

We enjoyed snack cookies and looking through maps and books with pictures of castles and the countryside. Our classroom visitor also shared personal stories of visiting Ireland and kissing the Blarney Stone!

We looked at the flag of Ireland and colored an orange, white and green stripe. The green represents the older Gaelic tradition while the orange represents the supporters of William of Orange. The white in the center signifies a lasting truce between the 'Orange' and the 'Green'.