Holidays in Times of Turmoil

Holidays are usually fun times.  But it seems like this year St. Patrick’s Day is going to be a bit of a downer.  I mean, how much can you celebrate if you are self-quarantining, or keeping your “social distance” from others to try and curb the spread of the Corona Virus?? 

But a creative neighbor (Caitlin) just forwarded THIS to me:

BRILLIANT!!!!  Let’s DO IT!  Make a shamrock (or 2 or 3 or 10….) and hang them in your windows, or your doors, or on your porch.  Then kids and their parents can take a walk or ride around the neighborhood and see how many they can find!  I mean, most everyone is home schooling these days due to school closures, and this activity could count as several subjects:

1.       Obviously, ART.  😊  Have your children make shamrocks and hang them.

2.       No brainer, MATH.  Count how many you find!  For more advanced students, make up some   word problems based on the hunt.  Here are some examples:

a.  If Joe finds 5 shamrocks in his neighborhood, and Kate finds 7, how many shamrocks did they find all together?

b.  If Kelsey finds 12 3 leafed shamrocks and 3 4 leafed shamrocks, how many sides total are on all of her shamrocks?

c.  If Jarod finds 28 shamrocks, but 6 of them were YELLOW and he was only counting GREEN ones, how many green shamrocks did he find?

3.  History – study St. Patrick’s Day, how it came about, and what it means.

4.  PE - if you WALK around the area on your hunt, your kids will also be getting exercise!

I will be making some shamrocks tonight and putting them up for passersby to count in my neighborhood.  Here is a pattern I will use, feel free to use it or to Google “shamrock patterns” to find others.

If you decide to participate, make sure your neighborhood knows so they can join in the fun!!  Share, share, share away.

Let’s make learning fun and do a little something special for St. Pat’s 2020!