Shrinking Leprechaun Hats!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  

I had a lot of kiddos wearing green today!  And of course we had to have the conversation about not pinching someone because they weren't wearing green....yikes!   

But we did celebrate with Lucky, my Leprechaun friend.  We started on Friday by decorating Styrofoam cups as leprechaun hats.  I told them there was a legend that said if you leave your hat on your desk a leprechaun will visit and shrink your hat down to his size!  

You can definitely tell who still believes in magic and who doesn't when you have conversations like this!  :)  

We left the hats on our desks on Friday afternoon and this morning when my kiddos came in they were so excited to see their shrunken hats with treats underneath them and a note from Lucky the Leprechaun!  I had a couple kiddos absent on Friday so they didn't have a hat to shrink, but they did still get a treat.  I think it's because Lucky saw their name tag and knew a kiddo sat there.  :)

Then this afternoon we found a secret message that Lucky had left us.  He left shamrocks all around the room with numbers on them like this: 

This shamrock was on our bookshelf! 

My kiddos had to put the right word on each line to find out the secret message.  First grade is just so much fun!  

This whole activity really didn't take long and it kept me from making messy leprechaun traps!  If you would like to do these activities next year, you can click the picture below to go purchase this pack from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business!  

I have done this for a few years and my kiddos always have so much fun with it!  

The real magic was done at home in my oven, but it didn't take a lot of time.  It only takes a few minutes in the oven for the cups to shrink to leprechaun size.  I do recommend practicing first with plain cups to make sure you have the right temperature and time!  I also wrote my kiddos' names on the top so I knew who they belonged to.  

Here is what they looked like before going in the oven.  

Here is what they looked like as they shrunk!  And, please forgive the messy oven door....for a woman who doesn't cook much it sure gets messy quick!  :)

Here is a picture of what they looked like on my kiddos' desks this morning!

We also used some of the activities out of my Night Before St. Patrick's Day Pack today and will use more this week!  It's a FREEBIE on TpT so make sure you download it this week to use!  :)

Click on the picture to go download it!  

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  I hope you didn't get pinched today!  :)

From Leprechaun Hats to Easter Eggs

We made Leprechaun hats on Friday in hopes that Lucky the Leprechaun would visit our room over the weekend and shrink them down to leprechaun size and leave a treat.  

Well, he made it!  

My kiddos were SOOOOO excited when they walked in this morning and found these cute litte leprechaun hats on their desks with chocolate underneath.  

Those were regular Styrofoam cups until they were shrunk by our leprechaun!  :)

We started the day with leprechaun hats, but we ended the day with Easter eggs!  

From one holiday to the next....

We used Anna Brantley's idea that she shared on her blog a couple years ago.  I used several plastic Easter eggs and wrote different numbers on one half of each egg and a clue on the other side.  

The pictures are hers!!  I forgot to take pics of the eggs I made, but they were similar!  

Then we used her freebie worksheet to go with it.  My kiddos LOVED this Easter egg fun today!  Click here to go to her blog!

I've never celebrated Saint Patrick's Day and Easter on the same day before, but we're on Spring Break next week so I wrapped up Saint Patrick's Day today as well as squeezed in some Easter fun!  :)