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Celebrating Saint Patrick's Day in the preschool

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Saint Patrick’s Day is on March 17th and has become the day when people around the world celebrate Irish culture. He is the patron saint of Ireland and often associated with symbols of Ireland such as the shamrock and the colour green.

At Beststart Oiphi we celebrated Saint Patrick's Day through arts and crafts, stories, discussions and dressing up.

The children used their focus and creativity to paint green shamrocks. Children from two to five years old enjoyed this activity. We also created Leprechaun themed hats from popsicle sticks. The popsicle sticks were painted in the morning, ready to be put together in the afternoon. The older children enjoyed this creative activity and chose their colours. We discussed how the Irish flag colours are orange, white and green. Most children chose to base their creations around these colours. There was lots of patience and engaged children during this activity, as the children followed the instructions and learnt how to line up the popsicle sticks to make the hats. While children waited for their turn, children were using their popsicle sticks to create shapes, patterns and counting.

We listened to a story from the Pete the Cat collection called ' The Great Leprechaun Chase'. The children listened intently to this story and had great discussions about it. Some of the children also enjoyed dressing up in green and wearing Saint Patrick's Day themed hats to celebrate.

Celebrating different cultures within early childhood education is important to learner identity. Te Whāriki our early childhood curriculum states that learner identity is enhanced when children's home cultures are valued in education settings and when teachers are responsive to their cultural ways of knowing and being. Also through communication, when children hear and enjoy the stories of their own and other cultures they can enjoy retelling them.