St. Patrick's Day

Karen Cadenhead, Lamar University
Internet Project
E-Mail: KarenC0112@aol.com
Topic: St. Patrick's Day

What I found:

• Information about the legend of St. Patrick and facts about his life
• The legend of the Shamrock and how and where to order a live Shamrock and how to care for it
• The legend of the leprechaun and customs associated with leprechauns
• Customs, traditions and symbols associated with St. Patrick's Day
• An internet site where you can make St. Patrick's Day (and other holidays) cards to send via E-Mail

Where to find:
http://www.marlo.com/st-p-mad.htm
"St. Paddy's Day Madness!"
Create a card see it online, and send it to someone via E-Mail

http://www.iol.ie/shamrock/legend.htm
The legend of the Shamrock

http://holiday.ritech....aintpat/saint_pat.html
Brief history of St. Patrick

http://holiday.ritech....intpat/everything.html
"What is a leprechaun?"

http://www.nando.net/toys/stpaddy/stpaddy.html
"A Wee Bit O'Fun"
St. Patrick's Day symbols and Customs

http://ai2a.net/~jwilson/patrick.htm
"St. Patrick's Day"
Customs and traditions of St. Patrick's Day

How the teacher can use this information:

Using the information in these websites and expanding upon them, a whole language unit could be taught around St. Patrick's Day. Some related activities are:

• After studying about leprechauns, students create leprechaun traps and write "How to Catch a Leprechaun" stories and/or creative writing: "Once I caught a leprechaun and asked him for his pot of gold. He gave me the pot, but instead of gold, _____ was in it!"
• Stage a "leprechaun visit." While students are out of the room, turn over chairs and mix up the room. Change bulletin boards, etc. Leave green glitter trails. In a prominent place, leave some milk and instant pistachio pudding mix in a container (not in the box so it just looks like white powder.) Leave a note for the students about the leprechaun visit and "leprechaun food." Allow students to mix the white milk and white powder to get green "leprechaun food." (pudding)
• Graph the shapes in Lucky Charms cereal.
• Brainstorm a list of things that are green, and then make up riddles (ex: What is green, grows in your backyard, and you have to cut it? grass) Give the list to another class to see if they can figure out the riddles.
• Study legends from other countries and compare them to Irish legends.
• Go outside and look for 4-leaf clovers.
• Make an interactive bulletin board using St. Patrick's Day symbols and definitions written on shamrock shapes for students to match.
• Students make St. Patrick's Day cards for each other and E-Mail on the internet.

Insights gained from this project:

• There is a lot of information on Ireland on the internet at various reading and comprehension levels, though not as much specifically on St. Patrick's Day.
• I could use a lot of these activities in my own classroom eventually.
• Often, many web sites can be found through other web sites, by tracing a path through the links, that you may not have found with you original search keyword.
• Sometimes you can find different information by using different search engines.

Submitted by: Karen Cadenhead, Lamar University

Uploaded by: BJ Lawrence/ Kent State University/ Deafed Major