Luck o' the Irish: Plans to be Irish for a Day

It's time to get ready for your little lads and lassies! Find your clover and get ready to be Irish for a day with these ideas, sure to please your pickiest leprechaun.

Get ahold of a video from Riverdance, the Show. There's a lot of mileage to be obtained from it. See if you kids can work out some of the simpler (!) steps from the show. Have them identify some of the Irish instruments. This is even a great way to incorporate multiple disciplines and tie in with Music In Our Schools Month. At the school where I previously taught, the P.E. teacher did a unit just on this. The kids watched the video, learned some of the steps, and learned other information about Ireland. (This P.E. teacher has taken a couple of trips to Ireland and just absolutely loves it!) What a great way to do some interdisciplinary plans!

Do your kids use recorders? Go to Richard Robinson's Tunebook and print some of the Irish folk tunes listed. This is also a good resource for any multi-cultural unit you might have. He has a large wealth of folk tunes from just about any culture you can imagine.

In March,for my culture of the month, I tie in activities from the British Isles and surrounding countries. A wonderful book on dances and games is Chimes of Dunkirk, which includes dances of English and old U.S. traditions. This is available from Music In Motion.

If you're bold (and if you tackle recorder, you're bold enough!), why not teach with a real Irish whistle? These instruments are very inexpensive and can be purchased through Lark In the Morning, which is a great source for ethnic instruments of all types.

I get so many ideas from K-8 Magazine, it's not even funny. One game I got from this source is a voice identification game. The kids close their eyes, and I quietly tap one of them on the shoulder. He or she is the "leprechaun," who then sneaks up to the piano and sings in a disguised voice:
do re me fa so so so
I'm a tricky leprechaun
fa me re re re
Teasing is my game
do re me fa so so so
You may keep the piece of gold,
fa me re re do
If you guess my name.

Then, using a token, gold chocolate coin, or anything small, the leprechaun hides the "gold" behind one of the other students. He/she then sits in his/her original spot. All the kids open their eyes. The person who has the gold hidden behind him has three guesses as to who the leprechaun was. If he's right, he keeps the candy or token. If he's not, the leprechaun gets it. The kids get a blast out of this game, and if you subscribe to K-8, you'll get a blast out of it. What a wealth of resources!

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