St Patrick's Day Shenanigans

Not to state the obvious here, but yesterday was St Patrick's Day. And my classroom was not immune to some St Patrick's Day shenanigans.

My students are still young enough, innocent enough, sweet enough or whatever to believe that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy and leprechauns are real. I don't know when but some time before I started teaching them, it became 'tradition' that the leprechaun made an appearance at school. So I inherited being the classroom leprechaun. Now, I'm not going to argue whether or not children should believe that these characters exist. But I did have fun pretending to be the classroom leprechaun. It was quite enjoyable to stay late after they had left on St Patrick's Day Eve (is that a thing?) to do 'mischief' and hide 'treasure'.

When my students got to school on St Patrick's Day, they made a quick beeline for their classroom, just knowing that their leprechaun would have been there. (On a side note, this reminds me of the child-like faith that we are called to have in our Heavenly Father.) When they got there, they were greeted with a note from Leppy the Leprechaun stuck to their door. The note informed them that he had done all kinds of mischief, which included: changing the date on the whiteboard to 'Sunday March 17, 3015', putting green water in the Venus fly trap, hiding their chairs, flipping one of the computer screens upside down and putting green food coloring in the jug they use to water their plants (so when they filled it, the water was green).

As they cleaned up after the very naughty leprechaun, they found green notes giving them clues to where his treasure was hidden. When they did find his 'treasure', they were so thrilled to get chocolate coins that they didn't notice that the coins said 'Bunny Bucks' (the leprechaun treasure supply store, aka Walmart, did not have any of the chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil). 

In the afternoon, we indulged in a painting session to paint leprechauns. I think this was a great success especially as my clothes remained paint-free.

My students apparently can't wait to see what Leppy has in store for them next year. I don't think that I would be speaking out of turn to say that Leppy enjoyed his St Patrick's Day immensely and is also looking forward to next year.