St Patricks Day at Buckle My Shoe
If you visited Buckle My Shoe on Tuesday 17th March you would have seen green everywhere! That’s right- we were celebrating St Patricks Day 😊
Our tamariki came dressed in their best green clothes and for some, it was extra special with green being their favourite colour. We decorated the play space with green lanterns, green ribbons and of course a sign that said Happy St Patricks Day.
This sign sparked some curiosity – with some of our older learners questioning – What’s St Patrick's day? What a great question tamariki!
We began researching who St Patrick was and why we celebrated it and came across some great facts. St Patrick’s Day is a celebration that is part of the Irish culture and is greatly celebrated in Ireland. We looked on our map and found where Ireland was and noticed that some of our little ones came from nearby European countries. We found that Patrick was a saint and St Patrick’s Day is a day to celebrate him and his life.
While researching more about the Irish culture, we came across a song called ‘I’m a Little Leprechaun’ and decided to learn it at mat time, as it was to the same tune as ‘I’m a Little Teapot’.
After morning tea, the inside and the outside environment was filled with a variety of green-themed activities. The neon green playdough inside captured many of our little ones’ attention and they spent much of the morning rolling, patting, pinching and squeezing the dough into many different things. Some of them pretended they were making special green bread, whilst others decided to make green cupcakes that they could gift to one another. “How about we make some St Patrick’s day green cupcakes after lunch?”, one of our kaiako suggested and this was met with many nodding heads!
Outside, the carpentry table was transformed into a shamrock painting station with our little ones eager to get painting. Instead of just painting the shamrocks with a normal paintbrush, sponges were provided alongside the paint so that our little ones could engage in some process art involving their fingers and use the sponges to create different effects on their shamrock. This technique required patience, hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. When they had finished their shamrocks, these were put to dry so that they could be used to add to our decorations inside!
Right in the corner of our outdoor area, there was a surprise on the clothesline. Instead of clothes being hung out to dry, there were green balloons on a string hanging from the line. And nearby, there were some fly swats – WHAT FUN! Having turns, our little ones used the fly swats to hit the balloons and watch them move in the wind. For some of our older tamariki this was a little easier as they were taller. For the littler ones, it required a lot of determination, perseverance and energy!
After lunch, we began making cupcakes and were sure to read all the instructions before starting. Our little ones are avid bakers and were familiar with all the ingredients and the measurement process. Once they had been baked in the oven and cooled – our little ones took turns decorating a cupcake each with the brightest green icing you have ever seen, followed by a taste test of course!
Wow - what a great green St Patricks Day at Buckle My Shoe!