it seems fitting to honor all our st patrick’s day fun on the day, a week and a half later, when i swept up more glitter from that sneaky leprechaun!  i tell you, he was something else!  we dressed in green all week to encourage a sighting!

(and when i saw this picture of myself, i realize even more how silly i looked…especially when i ran into the grocery store)

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by the way, since it was u week we also made the u->st patrick’s day connection again:

the leprechaun wants the pot of gold, the pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow, the rainbow comes after it rains, if it is rainy you might want an umbrella.

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we tried our best to catch him by working on one big trap.  we used an old tree house toy and added a lot of green, gold and rainbows to try to lure him in.

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wouldn’t you know it?  he snuck in everyday when we were outside!  we knew he had been there by the little piles of gold glitter (that he must of dropped from his bag).  he also pooped in our room.  but fear not:  leprechaun poop is small, round, sweet and you can eat it!  (green m&ms…though this nicely sorted pile was eaten by my dog before i could take them to school!)

:: :: :: ::

he left us notes and tricky clues to find a little fake leprechaun hidden around the room.

he got braver and braver and by thursday i accidentally sat on him (though when i shook out the rainbow cloth he must have been hiding under, all that fell out was gold glitter and a note). 

:: :: :: ::

we made leprechaun lures early in the week to encourage him to come out at preschool and then at home.

these were simple and fun.

there were a few friends who were SURE they saw him on the playground.  i totally believed them.

:: :: :: ::

another thing the leprechaun does to us is pee in the water…it turns it green but doesn’t change the flavor at all.

(and lest you fear that someone will think it is safe or appropriate to drink pee, offer pee, be asked to drink pee, etc, we break out of the make believe long enough to have a serious talk about the topic…which inevitably leads to other conversations about safe touch, bathroom parts, etc.  there are so many learning moments!)

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finally, on the final days before st patrick’s day, we made individual traps.  it didn’t seem like we would catch him at school, so we thought it would be best to try on our own.

i put mine up high on a window sill during story time at the end of the day and all of a sudden we heard a funny little laugh.  following the sound, we realized it must be in the trap!!!!  but again, when i grabbed the trap, all that fell out was glitter!  and his laugh stopped.  he must have snuck out of the window.

(i downloaded a sound effect laugh on itunes and started playing it during clean up time.  we’re so loud then that no one heard it until we quieted down for story time.  oh the rush.  it was fantastic.)

:: :: :: ::

so, with trails of glitter, sweet treats, enough green to see it for a long time, and singing our song many, many times, we celebrated for a week!

bring it on in 2013, leprechaun!

 

spring break = a birthday, lots of family time, broken phone service, an adventure in hatching our own eggs, sleeping in, staying up late, watching movies, catching up with reading, day trips, calf feeding, naps…and now we return to the regular rhythm of life!  i’m gearing up for some spring preschool goodness:  finding out what preschoolers think they can do VERY well, planting wheat grass, more snack picnics, planning preschool graduation, family picture night, x week’s treasure hunt (aaargh!), yarn cutting…all covered with the steady work of being intentionally kind and helpful to one another.

let’s do this.

 

by and for the children of New Creation Preschool.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

a printable of the verses:

click here for a PDF:  Tom Tom the Leprechaun

updated since we had our preschool day:

me:  

so today is international women’s day and all over the world, right above us in canada and right below us in mexico and farther down and across on both sides of the ocean, there are people celebrating this holiday.  a lot of places give women flowers just because they are women {insert stories and random flower giving tid bits}.

how would you explain what a woman is?

preschooler 1:

a girl.

preschooler 2:

no!  not a girl!  a girl is a child!

preschooler 1:

okay, a GROWN UP girl.  that’s a woman.

me:

how do you know if a grown up is a woman?

preschoolers (brainstorming style):

she has long hair

she is short

she’s skinny

pretty.  she is pretty.

she wears mascara

she wears lipstick

she always wears fancy dresses with flowers

she likes lace

she has sparkly shoes

she wears skirts

she wears rings and bracelets

she’s always wearing pink and purple

she can have a baby in her tummy.

before we were half way done with the list, there were calls out of no!  no!  some women have short hair and some men have long hair!  and after the lists were made, we went through each item one by one and crossed them out if either we knew a woman who DIDN’T fit the criteria or if we knew a man who DID.

every single thing got crossed off the lists except for women can have a baby in their tummy, women wear perfume and men wear cologne.

i thought that would be it…the deciding factors:  perfume, cologne, pregnancy.

then one little guy chimes in quietly:  my dad has worn perfume.  one little girl adds:  i’ve worn cologne. 

and crossed off they went!

i could see some of our PreK kids looking a bit confused/stressed/curious at the criteria being knocked off one by one.

one of those friends who had been on his belly looking at the list, sat up straight and said:  it’s about parts!  body parts!

a PreK friend next to him said:  yeah, but grown ups aren’t supposed to show us their parts so if they are wearing clothes, how are we supposed to know?

slam.

we’re back to one and one only criteria:

you know it is a woman if there is a baby in her belly.

but keep in mind that there are a lot of grown ups, men and women, who have big bellies and that is just extra skin, muscle and fat.  

so, bless his heart, the one PreK friend who thought he had it figured out said:

there’s really no way to know.

so with some waters being muddled and the opportunity to work the rest of their lives on the issues of gender, Happy International Women’s Day!

continue the conversation at home, families!

:: :: :: ::

I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.

~Bob Seger

with motivation for the world to be more tender, safer and stronger for our young ones, happy international women’s day.

I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.

~Bob Seger

with motivation for the world to be more tender, safer and stronger for our young ones, happy international women’s day.