Leprechaun Classroom Visit - Activities for St. Patrick's Day

Hi Friends! March is exciting because it's not only when we host our Disability Awareness Day Event, but we also have a FUN visit from the Leprechaun!! AND I've put everything together into ONE KIT to make it easy for anyone else wanting to join the fun.

Your students will love receiving a letter from Blarney, the Leprechaun and making the magic dust he left behind to reveal pieces of GOLD!

Always a crowd pleaser and one of my favorites as well! The reactions are PRICELESS as students mix and squish to reveal their pieces of GOLD that magically appear! Which are actually pistachios inside of the pistachio pudding! This pudding typically sells out fast this time of year, so get yours asap and **be aware of any nut allergies you may have in your classroom FIRST!

Even if you can't do this activity due to nut allergies, your students will still have fun with these other activities included!

🍀Step-by-step details for how to plan the PERFECT Leprechaun visit to your classroom, a Leprechaun Trap Family Project, and a fun "You've Been Pinched" activity to do with your colleagues!

🍀Make Leprechaun Slime, do some Leprechaun Trivia and MORE!

🍀PLUS, writing activities and a fun Leprechaun Hat Craft!

🍀Also includes this fun gift tag to use with chocolate coins and two other gift tag options!

You can get this Complete Leprechaun Kit HERE and if you're interested in learning more about our Disability Awareness Day, you can read about it HERE.  

Freebies for a Last Minute Leprechaun Visit

If you're not on Spring Break this week, it's still not too late to throw together a classroom Leprechaun visit with this Leprechaun Kit! It's a great way to bring some fun into the classroom and your students will remember it year after year!

The kit is filled with loads of fun from Leprechaun slime to Leprechaun pudding, to fun trivia to Leprechaun traps. Some other things included are a letter from the Leprechaun, goodie bag toppers, clickable links, a colleague game, coloring page and hat craftivity, writing prompt sheets and several other printables.
While you won't have time at this point to make traps or participate in the colleague game, here are some simple steps from the kit to help you throw together a last minute, successful Leprechaun visit.

I've also included the letter from the kit for you, just click on it!

And now it looks like you'll need the Leprechaun Dust recipe....so here is a non-clickable version of that too!

I wish you a successful Leprechaun Visit! If you use my tips and freebies here, I'd love to hear about it!

If you'd like to purchase the kit for some of the other activities or to store away for next year, you can check it out in my store {here}.

!!!Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

March In A Click!!

March is just a few days away, so it's time for "March In A Click." Prior to the first of each month, I post a clickable document with links to the top activities I will be doing in my classroom during the upcoming month. All you have to do is click on the activities to be taken to the activity source!

This is only an image. You will be able to download the clickable document below. 

I'm relieved that March offers a little break. I love all of the events and celebrations in February, but it is a busy busy month. All I have for March is St. Patrick's Day....of course, and a fun one.....the welcoming of spring, and World Downs Syndrome Day. 

Like last year, we'll be using my Leprechaun Kit for a secret Leprechaun visit and making Leprechaun pudding. We're also going to make the pots of gold and the Leprechaun hats.

The first day of spring is March 20th, so we'll do a couple of spring crafts on that day. We will make the coffee filter butterflies and the pom pom caterpillars. 

And please remember to honor "World Downs Syndrome Day" on March 21st. The campaign this year is again "Lots of Socks." Last year we all wore lots of crazy socks that were donated and purchased. This year I am going to buy plain white socks and let the kids decorate their own socks for this event!!! I can't wait. They will love it!

I hope you find these activities helpful and that they can simplify your planning. Download the clickable document below to access each resource in a simple click!! 

Amazon Giveaway & A Freebie

Friday is World Downs Syndrome Day (WDSD). It's on 3/21 each year!!! The date for WDSD was chosen to signify the uniqueness of the triplication of the 21st chromosome which causes Downs syndrome.  

This year's campaign is to raise awareness is called "Lots of Socks." We are hoping that everyone will wear "lots of socks" on Friday to help increase an awareness and spread the word about WDSD. 

You can wear lots of socks, one sock, colorful socks, or maybe even three socks to represent the 3 chromosomes!

To help spread awareness, I'm giving away a $21 gift card to Amazon!!!

WDSD Lots of Socks Contest!

How to enter:

1. Participate in the "Lots of Socks" campaign on 3/21.

2. Post a picture of you, your family, your kids, OR your students wearing lotsa socks to my Facebook page {here} by midnight (PST) on March 22nd. 

Extra Entry - Earn an extra entry into the contest by pinning the button above and leaving a link to your pin in the comments!

A winner will be chosen and announced on March 23rd. 

Even if you're not participating in the sock campaign, you can still help spread awareness by pinning the button and/or sharing this on your blog, with friends, or on your social media sites! Thanks in advance for helping to get the word out there!

Have you got your leprechaun dust ready for tomorrow??

Well since I haven't posted a freebie in awhile and I don't have any great finds to share with you today for my "Great Finds Sunday," I have a cute last minute freebie you can do with your students tomorrow. 

Kids are amazed to see how this magic dust turns green when they add milk....and even more amazed to see that it has little nuggets of gold in it! 

If you don't have a jar, baggies work just fine! Just be sure NOT to let your kiddos see the pudding box. 

I also have my kids say this magic chant......

"Leprechaun, Leprechaun

Never to be seen,

Make me colors

Turn to green."

Download {here}

This recipe and label are from my classroom leprechaun kit and it is 50% off today. 

Have a great day!!!

Amazing Day with Science, Gardening, & Leprechauns

I am so excited!!! What a great day it has been! First off, I finished my NV Alternate Testing up........I can breathe! I don't know if any of you administer the alternate assessments with your students, or what the alternate assessments are like in other states.....but in NV we have to record and videotape them, not to mention deal with a bazillion materials. Here are some of the materials I had to have just for the Science assessment:

a real apple, plastic apple
a real orange, plastic orange
a real table, a toy table
a toy horse
a real flower, silk flower
a hat
a toy boat
3 water bottles--one full, one empty, one 1/2 full
a cup full of paper clips
a cup full of rocks
a cup full of cotton balls
two small boxes--one empty, one with small gadgets

And they don't send any of these materials....we have to gather them ourselves. Needless to say, I'M DONE and oh what a relief it is!!!

The other exciting news that I'm SUPER excited about is that one of my Autistic students got approved today for in-home therapy sessions....40 hours a month....paid for by the district!!!! Yeah! That's right! An outside agency partnered with The Lovaas Center and Autism Partnership will be going into the home and providing this child with social/behavioral/communication therapy intervention. 

I am so excited to be able to obtain this amazing opportunity for her as her parents have not been able to afford additional therapy. This is probably one of my biggest educational accomplishments I've achieved during my teaching career! Thrilled beyond words! You just gotta dig down deep and find those resources! 

So yes, it's been an AMAZING DAY!!!!!

We also started our rocky candy today that will be ready to eat for St. Patrick's Day! If you've made it before, then you know it takes about 4-5 days to make. 

Super easy though, just a waiting process! This makes it all the more fun for the kids though, as they get to watch the process and see the changes taking place each day!

We also did a little spring planting today! 

If you were a reader of my blog last year around this time, then you may remember the cute little garden we had right outside our classroom door last year!

This year I moved classrooms and had to give up my garden bed.   :( So sad....it was so perfect and probably the only downfall of the new classroom! There is no place for a garden bed near my new room, which is why you see us above planting in containers this year. Oh well, we will have our garden regardless....and it's portable! The kids just love it so much and it really brightens up the school!

Well if you're still planning your St. Patty's Day and want a visit from a Leprechaun, check out my newly posted Leprechaun Kit!

 Just like the "Elf on a Shelf" tradition, but with a Leprechaun! Includes everything you'll need for a fun-filled day of Leprechaun mischief. Check it out {here}.


Until next time..............

SymbolStix Tutorial & Great Finds Sunday Linky

I've had a couple of people ask me how to insert SymbolStix symbols into a template, so I've made a tutorial to show you. It can be tricky to figure out on your own, but once you do it, it's super easy!! Personally, I like SymbolStix much better than Boardmaker.

Now onto some great finds! 

"Great Finds Sunday" is where every Sunday I post some of my great finds for the week and you can too! Your great finds do not have to be educational. It can be anything you found helpful or that you think might be helpful for others. It can be resources, sales, websites, recipes.....you name it!

Have you heard of "Tator Tots & Jello?"....the blog that is? I just love her blog! You should subscribe to her weekly newsletter if you haven't already! Her and her contributors always have great home and holiday ideas and printables. And every Friday she hosts the Link Party Palooza with fabulous giveaways EVERY Friday! Last Friday's giveaway is a $25 Target giftcard and there's still 3 days left to enter! Click on the giftcard to go to the giveaway. 

She's also giving away an awesome $200 Fort Building Kit. You can click on the picture to read more about the kit and to enter!

I also discovered an awesome new educational blog this week that I LOVE and think you will too! 

"Flap Jack Educational Resources!"

Her blog and resources are adorable and she has some great freebies too! You will definitely want to check it out!

And speaking of freebies.....that's how I found this cute little blog.......looking for St. Patty's Day activities and boy did I hit a JACKPOT!!!!!

      Almost 80 St. Patty's Day activities and they're ALL FREE!! 

Just click on the picture to snag some!

And last, Farley has really outdone herself this time!!! It's CURRENTLY for the classroom! 

If you haven't heard of Currently, it's a monthly linky where everyone links up what they're listening to, loving, wishing, wanting, needing, etc. You can check out March's currently{here}. It's fun and because Farley has the rule of 3 where you have to leave at least 3 comments to other bloggers, you get the chance to meet and find other new bloggers. 

You can check out Farley's Currently For the Classroom {here}.

Well that's it for this week! 

Grab the button and link up your great finds!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hope you all have a great week! Anyone else celebrating Read Across America this week???

FREEBIE FRIDAY WITH THREE

Today has been a very somber day. I arrived at school this morning to hear that one of my teacher colleagues was killed last night in a car accident. His wife is also a teacher at my school and was not in the car with him. It has been a very sad day and will have some difficult times ahead of us in the following weeks.

The computer is always my escape because it always seems to take my mind off of things. I've been excited all week to link up and share 3 freebies with you this week. I tell ya, I'm becoming obsessed with this design stuff!! It's ADDICTING! I can't stop. I just want to keep designing one project after another! Now that I'm finally accumulating some clipart and fonts to work with, I must say that these are my best two creations yet! 

Freebie #1: Click {here}

Freebie #2: Click {here}

Freebie #3: Click {here}
This is a great activity for beginning writers. I have attempted to upload this as an editable version, so that you can type in the words of your choice (e.g. Today is Monday). I hope it opens for you as an editable document, as this is my first time attempting to do this. If not, let me know and I can try again....or you can always white out "type word here" and write your words in. Be sure to scramble the words you put in, so students have to unscramble them to form the sentence at the top. 

I hope you enjoy these freebies and can use at least one if not all three for your classroom! I would love for you to comment with any feedback! It would make my night!! :) 

Now for some fabulous giveaway (((shoutouts)))!!! 
Another fabulous find tonight for more freebies is "the school blog addict." I found this blog tonight through Freebie Friday.....and I love this blog!!!! Plus, she is the creator of Ashley Hughes Clipart, which is lovely by the way! 

She is also giving away this huge alphabet bundle right now!!!!

Another you definitely don't want to miss out on.........
the giveaway from "Learning with Mrs. Leeby." 

Speaking of GIVEAWAY'S........I'm coming up on 100 followers very quickly........and was wondering if any of you out there are interested in supporting me in a giveaway!!! 

Oh, and one more thing........I just started "The Bender Bunch" facebook page lastnight! I'm still working on adding a link to my blog, but would love it if you checked out my page and "liked" it   {here}.