Granny Gaddy

Children's book Author

A Gathering of Kids

Shamrocks, shamrocks, shamrock!

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Activities: Lucky Shamrock

Need items: recorded Irish Music, game pieces(half should have a shamrock on the back and half should have gold of some kind on the back and there should be one special one), taped circle on floor(If you are especially handy you could make this look like a road).

Children walk around the circle while music is playing. When the music stops each child picks up a game piece. If they have picked up a shamrock, they get to continue playing. If they picked up a gold piece they are out. Game continues while there are still pieces left or until someone picks up the special piece That person is the winner.

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Bunnies

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Activities:  The bunny hop is always fun this time of year. I have found the music on several cds.

Crafts: Bunny Ears are popular. This is the easiest way I have found to make them.  Use a two inch strip construction paper ( your choice of colors) Fit it to the child’s head and staple it in a circle to fit. Have the child draw and cut out the  two ears. Staple or glue them to the band.

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Ducks

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Activities:  Duck, Duck, Goose

This is a popular game where all participants sit in a circle. The person chosen as “it” goes around the circle tapping each person on the head saying”duck”. After a few ducks “it” taps a person and says,”goose” and starts running. The goose gets up and chases “it”, trying to tag “it” before reaching the space where “goose” was sitting. If Goose is successful in tagging , the game goes on as it was. If Goose is unsuccessful “goose” Becomes “it”, and the game goes on.

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Castle Life

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Activity– Blind Mans Bluff

Simple game. All you need is a a cloth for a blindfold and some friends. Choose someone to be blindfolded. Some times the blindfolded person is turned around a couple of times, but this can be eliminated at your choice. Then someone taps the blind man on the shoulder. The blind man must guess who the tapper is. If he guesses correctly. the blind man and the tapper switch places. If not, others take turns tapping.

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Snowmen and Snowballs

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Activity: Snowman Scramble

You will need–a Hat, scarf, gloves and over-sized jacket for each team.

Divide the players into teams. Try to make the teams as even as possible in ability.

Place a pile of “snowman clothes” opposite each team. At the signal, the players race to the pile of clothes  and pick one player as the snowman. The other players must then dress the snowman in all the articles of clothing. The snowman is not allowed to help at all! When the snowman is dressed he runs back to you. The team with the first completely dressed snowman ot ereach you wins.

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mittens

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Activity:

The Mitten in the snow
(this can be done with the animals from Jan Brett’s book The Mitten or Farm animals or another category you may come up with)
The mitten in the snow
The mitten in the snow
Help us please so we don’t freeze
The mitten in the snow.

A________________ squeezes in,
A________________ squeezes in,
Help us please so we don’t freeze,
A mitten in the snow.
Continue with different animals. Depending on the age of the children you can do one animal at a time or continually adding on each new animal.
 

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dragons

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Activities: Dragon Breath

Dragon

This game can be played with teams or with each child having its own string. You will need a ten foot (or longer) string for each team or child and a cone shaped cup. Pull the string through the bottom of the cup. Tie the strings to furniture,doorknobs, or nails so they are stretched tight. Try to get them shoulder height or a little lower.  Line up children (either by teams or individually) behind each string. Cups should be at the end of the string closest to children with open end of cups facing children.  At a signal, children begin blowing into the cup to move it along the string until the cup reaches the other end of the string. If playing as teams, the player must push the cup back to the beginning by hand for the next player. If playing as individuals, the first one finished is the dragon.

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Aliens

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You will notice that I didn’t include any pictures with my topic this time.  I did this because no one knows what an alien looks like, so it is all up to your imagination. There is room for lots of creativity. Another thing that I have done differently this time is I have not included a story starter paragraph. Instead I have included a sheet that can be downloaded to aid in describing YOUR alien. With this information kids can work together on a story.

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