Scotland and Ireland-Céad Míle Fáilte!

The first week of camp we learned about Scotland and were amazed at all of this incredible country's beauty.

Ms. Amy led the camp for the first week because she is one awesome friend and coworker! She dug up all sorts of interesting facts about Scotland!

  Here's just a few:

 

We decided that we were going to make the flag for each country that we have camp. Amy always finds a way to make art fun and she's great at sneaking in some motor skills. Campers tore white paper into bits to make the white X on Scotland's flag.

We read some great books about Scotland.

The ones about the Lochness Monster were especially popular. :)

 

Next, we learned how people dress in Scotland. We learned about the families that live there and that they have certain tartan colors and family crests. They have some great traditional clothing that people use to wear and still do for festivals and other occasions.

Well, after hearing about how the Scottish dress, Ms. Molly brought us a BIG surprise! She brought Mr. Molly, (Aaron!) who is Scottish and had dressed up in all of his traditional clothing for the children! They were amazed! He even brought a sword to show the class which was a big hit with the boys!

Afterwards, he let us try on his clothes!

 

We found out that all that clothing is kind of heavy!

 

We learned that Scotland is famous for it's castles and that there used to be kings and queens that lived there. We made crowns and built castles in our centers.

Campers also built castles at the block center!

At  the end of the week we made Scottish scones! You can find the recipe we used here.

Campers got to help, then played while they baked!

Next up...Ireland! We started by making Ireland's flag and we used Ms. Amy's idea to tear paper again! They really loved tearing the paper.

Next, we read about Leprechauns and we found that one could have possibly left some gold coins in our sand table!!! We weren't sure though...

We learned that Ireland is famous for potatoes!

We carved designs into our potatoes.

 

 Next, we learned that there are many different breeds of sheep in Ireland. We made some of our own sheep at art. They have lots of personality. Then we read Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw. Great book!

 We also played with sheep at the block center!

 Afterwards, we learned to finger knit. It was challenging for the younger kids, but I put them in my lap and did the lacing for them. The older kids caught on and did it on their own. Little did I know finger knitting is addicting! There are tons of really cool ideas for finger knitting, just google it!

We made bracelets...

and necklaces.

 

To keep up the finger knitting at home, check out this tutorial:

We also learned about shamrocks and the elusive four leaf clover. For a fun science project we colored shamrock shaped coffee filters with green marker. Then we used droppers to add water and watch the color spread.

 

We also made these little shamrock cards with our thumbprints. Some had three leaves and some had four.

  

Later we went on a shamrock hunt! We collected as many as we could find all over the school!

We found lots of shamrocks!

When we got back to class we traded our shamrocks in for candy, then we graphed how many three and four leaf clovers we found. We found more with three leaves!

Next we learned about the Blarney Stone. Ms. Rebeka drew a castle with a stone so we could practice kissing our own Blarney Stone. We saw pictures of people kissing the real one and the castle where it's at. We learned that the legend is that kissing the Blarney Stone gives you the "gift of gab" or words that flatter. After each kiddo kissed the stone we tried out using kind and flattering words. It worked!

It was hard to do!

Pointing to the stone...

Another craft we made was a Celtic knot that we colored and added yarn to. Then we added the phrase "Céad Míle Fáilte!" which literally means A Hundred Thousand Welcomes. We learned that the Irish are very hospitable people and sometimes have this phrase hung on their door.

We also learned that centuries ago, Celtic knot patterns were used to decorate religious texts.

Here's a finished sign!

At the end of the week we made Irish Soda Bread which was the easiest recipe EVER! It was also a big hit! They ate it all. The loaf was fairly small, I thought it would be a great recipe for a bread bowl for soup, yum! It didn't take any yeast or need time rising which means it was quick and easy.You can find the recipe we used here.

That wraps up Scotland and Ireland. It was a wonderful week and we enjoyed learning about those beautiful countries. We are on to Spain next! Happy Friday!