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How to Catch a Leprachaun

Are you looking for a way to ignite some excitement about reading and writing this month?  If so, I have the perfect activity for you and your kiddos!  You will start with a story and end with some excellent informational writing.  A story can capture students' imaginations and spark their interest in what you want to teach them.
 
This month's target standards in reading and writing are focused on informational text and writing.  Gail Gibbons is one of my favorite authors for informational text!  This month, I chose St. Patrick's Day as our mentor text to meet the CCSS targets.  (Perfect for March!)

How to Use it in Your Classroom

Your students will love learning about St. Patrick's Day with this non-fiction book.

LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITIES:

Non-Fiction Text Features Hunt

Gail Gibbons uses a plethora of non-fiction text features!  So this is the perfect time to review/teach text features with a non-fiction text feature hunt!  I created this fun little one to go with this book.  You may use it as an anchor chart to record non-fiction text features as you read the book aloud to your students.  You may also choose to use it in a small group or partner work.
 
It's a good activity to motivate students to recognize and use these features in reading and writing.

THE DOWNLOAD LINK IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

St. Patrick's Day Reading

So let's jump into the book!

You may want to use this cute flipbook for your students to collect information as you go through the book together.  Kids love flipbooks – I find that students are much more engaged than with just a flat graphic organizer.  When complete, it makes a great prewrite for an informational paragraph.

St. Patrick

St Patrick was a Historical Person

This book provides the historical background on the life of St. Patrick as well as legends surrounding his name.

St Patrick's Day Customs

Your students will recognize some of the fun customs covered in the book and learn how different countries have adopted different customs.

 

Leprechauns 

Leprechauns are such enchanting little imaginary creatures!  Tell the students that they will be writing a plan to catch one, so they will need to learn as much about them as they.   Here are some fun questions to ponder with your students:
  • Where might they live?
  • What might they like to do?  
  • What might they like to eat?
 
Legend has it – if you catch a leprechaun – he will lead you to a pot of gold!  So let's catch a leprechaun!
 
Now that your students have gathered so much information about leprechauns, they are ready to make a plan to catch one of these little rascals!
 

WRITING: How to Paragraph

The flap book that you used as you were reading the story with your students can now be used as their Pre-write!

Once the rough draft is finished, edited, and revised they are ready for the publishing step!  

There are two options for the publishing step.  It's always fun to have a choice and it gives your students a stronger sense of ownership for their writing.

This fun How to Catch a Leprechaun writing activity came from my March Monthly Paragraph Writing Resources, packed with resources to meet your March writing needs.  

Just click on the picture to see more of that packet.

MATH ACTIVITIES:

Use your students' enthusiasm for St. Patrick's Day to motivate them to practice their math facts with these fun math activities!

Color by Code:

Don't let St. Patrick's Day sneak up on you like a leprechaun – get these today!

Math Games

These Leprechaun math games are sure to keep your students engaged and mastering their addition and subtraction math fact fluency.

Your students will love writing about how they plan to catch a leprechaun!
Click below to find it in my Free Resource Library along with the Leprechaun Bump games.

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Welcome

My name is Peggy Means. I am a child of God and a retired elementary teacher. I loved teaching and creating engaging resources for my students. Now, I love sharing my resources and ideas with busy teachers around the world.

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