Thursday, April 1, 2010

Rotation Twelve

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

PreK 3, PreK, K, Grade 1:
St. Patrick's Day traditions and songs and fingerplays with St. Patrick's Day themes.

Let's Celebrate St. Patrick's Day, by Peter Roop
This is a cheery little book that explains some of the traditions and symbols surrounding St. Patrick's Day: shamrocks, leprechauns, the color green, and the history of the holiday.  Each item is given its own chapter and the watercolor illustrations are engaging to young children.






 St. Patrick's Day, by Gail Gibbons

In her signature style, Gail Gibbons takes us through the history of St. Patrick's day by explaining who St. Patrick was, how he came to become a saint, and how some common traditions surrounding the holiday came to be.  Simple, clear text and bright illustrations make this a perfect starting point for young children.





Grade 2: Traditional Irish literature

Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife, by Robert Byrd
Finn MacCoul is a giant in Ireland, but he fears that an even bigger giant, Culcullin, will be able to beat him a duel.  Finn tells his wife of the threat, and his wife uses her cunning to trick Culcullin into fearing Finn!  For example, she bakes two types of bread: ones with iron pans baked in and ones without.  She serves Culcullin the ones with iron and to Finn's baby (really Finn in disguise), she serves the ones without.  The giant can't believe that the "baby" of Finn can eat such tooth-breaking bread and begins to fear Finn himself.







Grade 3: Readers' Theater and St. Patrick's Day video clips
We took turns reading parts in a little play about the traditions of St. Patrick's Day, then watched a news clip about the history of the day from the History Channel's website.




Grades 4 & 5: CyberHunt!
We completed a closed cyberhunt to learn more about St. Patrick's Day.  A closed cyberhunt is one which gives websites for students to choose from to find their answers.  We are continuing to learn about how to read a webpage:
       we scroll through the whole page
       we scan headings and opening sentences in     paragraphs
       we use the sidebar as a table of contents for the site
       we notice words in bold, hyperlinks, photos, graphics, and captions