Thursday, March 10, 2011

St. Patrick, Snakes, and The Loch Ness Monster

For stART (story + ART) today, we combined play, and craft time, with a geography lesson, to go along with Sheila MacGill-Callahan's The Last Snake In Ireland, A Story About St. Patrick...


...with a little Loch Ness legend thrown in. The story artfully weaves the legend of St. Patrick driving the snakes from Ireland, with the better known legend of the Scottish monster.

I printed out a couple of labeled maps of Europe (you can find oodles of them, by Googling "labeled maps of Europe"). I saved one to my computer, so I could print it out, full page size, and then crop, and enlarge it, so I had mainly Ireland, and Scotland showing.

I used the first map to show the children where Scotland, and Ireland are in relation to Europe. The second map, I covered with wax paper, so T could fill in the land of Ireland, Scotland, and surrounding areas, with Play-Doh, while the rest of the children made tiny snakes...


...and a bell, for our Lego "St. Patrick" to use to drive the snakes into the ocean...


...except for the last one, of course, which ended up in the mysteriously, magical waters of Loch Ness.


I had originally planned on having the older children cover the countries in green, and the ocean in blue Play-Doh, for our story reenactment, but they were so taken with the idea of the monster, that they used up almost all our Play-Doh making their own versions, first.






In fact, the entire rest of the morning, and part of the afternoon, was spent Googling, and watching video footage, and documentaries about the beast. And, I now find myself making planning another quick run to the library, and putting together a Loch Ness monster themed snack, for this evening.

You'll have to come back later to read about that, but you can find many more children's book themed crafts, and projects, right now at A Mommy's Adventures' weekly stART (story + ART) link-up, or more geography themed projects for children, at this week's Geography and History link-up, hosted by Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

10 comments:

Phyllis said...

*Sigh* Sounds like a lovely day.

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Phyllis - It really has been. Nice when that happens.

Debbie said...

What a fun day. I love all of their Lock Ness Monsters!

Christy Killoran said...

Very cool! I love their play doh creations. I can't wait to see what kind of snack you come up with! T is going to Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales this summer with People to People and one of the things they will do is go on a sonar equipped boat to search for Nessie. We'll have to use your ideas before he goes.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

What a neat way to combine two legends! All the monsters look very scary :)

Mrs. B said...

I jsut read this post, as I am planning next week's preschool activities. The book looks great so I just placed it on hold with our library. I love the internet! Thanks for the idea!

Ticia said...

I love their monsters, and the playdoh reenactment of Saint Patrick.

TwigandToadstool said...

Looks like a lot of fun! Thanks for the great ideas.
Shanti

Centers and Circle Time said...

The play-doh monsters are the best!

Deb Chitwood said...

What a great post - and great project! I love the way you've combined so many subjects into one fun learning experience. I featured your post both at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page and in the Living Montessori Now Community at http://livingmontessorinow.com/community/#/1378313/forum/85453/how-do-you-celebrate-st-patrick%E2%80%99s-day.html