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JDaniel4s Mom

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St. Patrick’s Day Activities: Paper Plate Emotions Activity

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I have some many St. Patrick’s Day books I want to explore with you. I will  be sharing one book this week,  one next week and one on March 9th .  Why spread them out? Well, I have post exploring a Dr. Seuss book coming up  for Dr. Seuss’ birthday and one about a book with a special birthday. (JDaniel will turn five in early March.) This week I want to share the book St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning and some activities we did to explore it.

St. Patrick's Day Activities: Paper Plate Emotions Activity

Patrick totally thinks the St. Patrick’s Day parade is to celebrate him in this wonderful book by Elizabeth Lee O’Donnell. He has been to Patrick’s Day parade. People carry banners with his name and he just knows it is all for him. Knowing he is special fills him with joy. Patrick tries to treat everyone well and be the best boy he can be.

When his mom that he has been wrong about this and who the parade is really for, Patrick is filled with disappointment and anger. He doesn’t like being ordinary. He takes out his anger on the people he run into and they become worried about what has changed his behavior.

In the end he learns that people truly think he is special just because he is who is  and he apologizes to those he has hurt.
This book opened the door for a wonderful discussion with JDaniel about how we treat people and how we each of things that make us special.

 

What else did we do to explore this Patrick’s Day?

 
 
St. Patrick’s Paper Plate Emotions Spinner
 

St. Patrick's Day Activities: Paper Plate Emotions Activity

Patrick goes through a wide variety of feeling during the course of his story. I made JDaniel a paper plate emotions spinner. We used it to talk about the feelings Patrick felt as well as what make him feel sad, happy, or excited.
St. Patrick's Day Activities: Paper Plate Emotions Activity

This was a lot of fun to use. I think we will use it when talking about characters in other stories too.
 
 
Counting Objects in Books
 
 
We are working on number recognition at our house. I made some four leaf clover and placed numbers on them. JDaniel had to tell the number on each one and then find pictures that contained that number of something.

St. Patrick's Day Activities: Paper Plate Emotions Activity

 

JDaniel found a picture with three dogs in it. We continued through the book and found several more pictures that had three of the same objects in it.

This was a fun way to walk through the book again and work on numbers.

 Hair Gel Bag for Letter Writing

 

St. Patrick's Day Activities: Paper Plate Emotions Activity

 
 
I was told that I need to work with JDaniel on how he forms the letters of his name. The boy in the book thought the name on the banner in the parade was his. JDaniel got to work on his letters with a gel bag.
I have seen hair gel letter practice bags all over Pinterest. They are so easy to make. Literally it is hair gel mixed with food coloring in a ziplock bag. Our bag had layers of packing tapes on the seal to make sure that it stayed close.

JDaniel had the best time trying to make his letters. The gel moves freely and did make it hard to see some of the completed letters. It did give him practice in how to form the letters though.

How did you explore concepts found in children’s books this week?

Disclaimer: Links in the post to Amazon are affiliate links.
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Comments

  3. I love reading how you explore books with your son! Emotions are hard to explain with words–I think you did a great job with the paper plates. Not so sure about the gel pack–but if it really works and he can see the letters he wrote-I say go for it!

  6. I was just thinking about St. Patrick’s Day the other morning. This looks like a wonderful choice. The illustrations look great. Your follow up activities are excellent. I particularly like the gel one. This is great for kids who have sensory issues.

  7. I love the spinners!
    I was just thinking of St. Patrick’s Day — wondering if they will want to take down Valentine’s stuff or if we’ll just put up the St. Patty’s stuff along side it. 🙂

    I made a hair gel bag puzzle — never thought of using it to write letters! I love that! (I just have to watch my 3 year old who likes to try to squeeze the goo out…)

  8. I love books like these.
    My kids are reading out the library, so I wouldn’t be surprise if they already read this one.

    We didn’t do concepts from books per say this week, but we did arts and craft from a blog posts for their Valentine’s day, for all the kids in each of their classes. Way better than just getting candy!

  12. Wow, you are already off to the next holiday! We are still recovering from Valentine’s Day 🙂 Sounds like a great book to read. I remember doing paint in the bag when Anna was younger, it was a lot of fun.

  14. I went over to read your about me profile as I was sure you had to be a teacher! And I was right. 😉
    These are fantastic.

  17. The variety of your activities impressed me. You hit on social skills, math, letters, and of course literacy. Plus, the type of activities could be transfered to many other books. Thanks for the great ideas! My daycare children are going to enjoy the hair gel activity!

  18. The hair gel bag is a great idea. But it’s hard to believe it’s almost March and time for St. Patrick’s Day crafts.
    Hope you have had a great weekend!

  22. I have never met another Deirdre I am a preschool teacher I have a class of 24 and its busy and crazy but I love it

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