This week I have a little shamrock gluing activity on the art shelf. I used a Creative Memories heart punch to punch out hearts from three different shades of green construction paper. Then I demonstrated to the children how they could be used to make a shamrock. We have read the book The Story of St. Patrick's Day by Patricia Pingry. That book talked about St. Patrick using the shamrock's three leaves to teach the Irish people about the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since we are a Christian preschool, I was able to use that analogy with the children when demonstrating this project.
I love this series of books by Patricia Pingry. They are board books and are just the right amount of information for preschoolers. I have one for almost every holiday.
The photo below shows the activity as I set it up on a tray. I notice now that the photo is somewhat blurry........my apologies. I get in a hurry snapping photos sometimes. Anyway.........on the bottom of the tray is a green vinyl gluing mat, top left is a container with white construction paper squares cut to 3 inches, then a basket with glue, green marker, and a pencil, and a little bowl filled with the green hearts.
To do the activity the child takes the entire tray to a table and "unloads" it. They use the pencil to write their name on the back of a white square. Then they position three green hearts (points together) to form a shamrock. Next they glue each heart to the paper square using the Tap-N-Glue bottle. Finally, they use the green marker to draw a green stem on the shamrock.
This photo shows two wee little shamrock cards that two girls made in my morning class today. So cute!!
I've been looking for a good book on St. Patrick's Day! Thanks for the tip :)
Posted by: PS Montessori | March 17, 2009 at 02:57 PM