St. Patrick's Day

I have always been a little fascinated by Irish culture. I spent a semester in Ireland studying the Irish/English conflict. A few of my favorite Ireland-related books :

         

We are usually on Spring Break on St. Patrick's Day, but I like to read Fin M'Coul by Tomie De Paola. Fin comes home worried because another giant, Cucullin coming to get him. Fin's wife, Oonagh, has a plan. She tricks Cucullin into a foolish move that causes him to lose his strength. It's an excellent read aloud for any age group, just be prepared to stop and discuss quite a bit with younger kids. There's really nothing related to St. Patrick's Day in this book except that it takes place in Ireland. Tomie De Paola has a book about St. Patrick, but this one is more fun to read. I just wish I could do a decent Irish accent.

I've created 3 St. Patrick's Day related products. One for purchase, a Facebook Fan Freebie, and a no-strings-attached freebie. Clicking on the pictures should take you to the products.

At my TPT store:

Facebook Fan Freebie!

Please like my page--getting started is hard!

No-strings-attached Freebie!

Linking up!

Three Cheers for Tacky--and a freebie

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Somehow I was unfamiliar with Tacky the penguin until just recently. 

I don't know how this happened because I know and love other books Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger wrote/illustrated. Last week I read Three Cheers for Tacky to my first graders. Tacky doesn't quite fit in with the other penguins. He has a very hard time learning the cheer. In the end, Tacky's unique rendition of the cheer makes it more interesting, and his team wins. The others learn that Tacky is an odd bird, but he's a good bird to have around. My students loved this book. I looked around online, and found an old post from Primary Graffiti with a link to a video and some free activities. Next week we're going to do some more activities and read some of the other Tacky books. 

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