My Pick for St. Patrick’s Day
In the past, I’ve had rotten luck finding a good book to share with wee ones on St. Patrick’s Day, but I think I’ve found gold with this one: Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato: an Irish folktale by Tomie dePaola. Jamie O’Rourke is the laziest man in all of Ireland, never doing a lick of work. He stumbles upon a leprechaun, and the clever leprechaun convinces Jamie that instead of taking his gold, he should wish for the world’s biggest potato – then he’d never have to worry about food again! Jamie grows the biggest potato, enough to feed the town, enough for everyone to eat their fill until they wished they’d never see another potato again! Jamie then makes a deal that satisfies the villagers and his own lazy nature, and the clever leprechaun gets to keep his gold.
If you’re looking for some quick, inexpensive, fun activities to do to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, bring in some potatoes and this book. After hearing the story, little ones can play “Hot Potato” by passing around a real potato. If your ears can tolerate kid music (for me, it depends on the day I’m having!) the Wiggles have a song called “Hot Potato” that my littlest ones love. You can make stamps from the potatoes to dip in paint and use to make patterns for an art and math activity. If you have a green thumb (and don’t we all on St. Patrick’s Day?) you can show kids a potato with “eyes” and talk about how a potato grows. I’ve seen lessons where teachers start the budding process by putting potatoes in a brown paper bag and leaving it in a closet, I’ve seen ideas for suspending the potato with toothpicks in a jar of water – I even found a website: http://growyourownpotatoes.com/with teacher resources to get you started! Even black-thumbed folks like me can usually get a potato to bud, so a fun science experiment can grow from one Irish folktale. Now that’s magical!
Read MoreFrosty the Snowman!
When I sing to my own ‘tweenage kids, they roll their eyes and beg me to stop. But when I sing to preschoolers and kindergartners, I get instant engagement. That’s why I love books that can be sung, like Frosty the Snowman written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins and illustrated by Richard Cowley. When I opened this book and started to sing the words to my kindergarten classes, immediately I had kids singing along (including one sweet girl who knew none of the words but still sang “laaa laaa la la laaa!” with vigor and obvious enjoyment.) Fidgeting stopped, and swaying in time to the music began. Eyes followed each page turn. And when I was done reading Frosty the Snowman, eager hands reached for it so they could sing-read it themselves.
Books that can be sung are perfect to support early readers because they can easily memorize the words and then use that knowledge to match the words they see on the page with what they already know. Frosty the Snowman also has that great, catchy part at the end: “Thumpity-thump-thump, thumpity-thump-thump.” After we read the book, we practiced patting that rhythm on our knees. You can count it as “1-2-3, 1, 1, 1-2-3, 1,1”. For a listening activity that involves movement, you can make up easy patterns for your little ones to hear and copy: “1, 2, 1,2” or “A, B, A, B”. It can become a sequencing activity and a “reading patterns” lesson. I’ve had kids tap out rhythms we write on the board in words: “knees, head, knees, head” or you can assign letters, colors, etc. Kids can read the pattern, predict how it continues, and then tap out the rhythm with hands, pencils, or chopsticks (I asked my local Chinese restaurant to donate 30 pairs and they gave me a huge bagful! Thanks, Golden Buddha!)
Follow up the listening/sequencing activity with a drawing/writing activity. Give students a sheet of paper with this written at the top:
Frosty the Snowman was a jolly, happy soul
With a _________ and a ________ nose and two eyes made out of ________.
Little ones can draw a snowman and fill in the blanks. With so many fun ways to use this book, Frosty the Snowman is sure to warm your kids’ hearts.
Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet
Gilbert seems to have everything his fishy heart could want, but he longs for a pet of his own. At first the visiting dog seems like an ideal pet, but he drinks from Gilbert’s bowl, and barks. A lot. The mouse runs away, and the fly gets swatted. Finally, Gilbert gets a pet! One that’s not too loud, not too rude, not too squished – one with whiskers!
Kelly DiPucchio and Bob Shea have teamed up to make a fish tale worth reading again and again. The suspense over what kind of pet will work for a fish will hook readers until the very last line.
Use this book to dive into a fun graphing lesson. Make a bar graph showing the pets your students have and discuss the data. Do more students have dogs or cats? How many have fish? How many have fish that have their very own pets? Super-brave teachers and parents may be inspired to get a pet after reading Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet. And some of us may try to bring back the pet rock fad.
For more information, visit kellydipucchio.com or bobshea.com.
Read MoreGuess Who Is Out of the Den?
