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Poppins Book Nook ~ Where in the World ...

… is Ireland? … did St. Patrick live and work? … are the leprechauns? … do shamrocks originate? … is a pot 'o gold?

These were some of the questions we sought to answer when reading the book Papa and the Leprechaun King by Arthur Cola. Papa, Grammy and the "Roses" are on a tour of Ireland when Papa comes across an old shepherd. He tells him of a legend and chooses him to solve a mystery because of the truthfulness he can see in his eyes. This adventure takes them through many historic villages, cities, and landmarks in Ireland and introduces him to Finbar, the Kind of the Leprechauns. The book is filled with adventure, mystery, intrigue, and lots of eloquent and informative descriptions of the landmarks in Ireland. You could use this book as a guidebook for a trip to Ireland. It gives names of restaurants, inns, highways and backroads, monuments, and much more. This book was a good mix of adventure and geography. The geography got a little dry for an 8 and 10 year old, so I wish I would have used a map for us to trace as we went along. I found it very cool, though! We are reading this book as a part of Poppins Book Nook, a monthly-themed virtual book club for kids of which I am co-hosting. Lots of blogging moms are joining together to share, on the last Monday of each month, a book we have read and corresponding activities we have done that falls within the monthly theme. This month's theme was "Where in the World …" We had a lot of fun with our chosen book and learning about the geography and landmarks of Ireland and several of the Irish legends.

Irish Brown Bread

We made some authentic Irish Brown Bread to go with some potato and mushroom soup. It was quite tasty, I must say! Catch a Leprechaun

We decided to try to catch a leprechaun. We made a trap with a rainbow ladder. The idea was that when the leprechaun got to the top of the ladder, he would cross over the leaves to get to the Lucky Charms and pennies! We knew that when he walked across the leaves that he would fall through the leaves into the hole we had cut under it! We went to bed and waited.

The next morning we opened our front window curtains and saw a note taped to it from the outside. It said …

There was a Wee One who was smart,
Who wanted gold with all his heart.
He could feel in his soul,
That there waited a hole,
So he blew the kids' plan apart.

Nice try! Better luck next year!
But thanks for the Lucky Charms and the shiny pennies!
You can keep the dirty ones.

We noticed right off that it was a limerick! And we had been studying them and making up our own! We ran outside and saw that the leprechaun had tricked us! The glitter footprints showed that he climbed up the ladder and walked around the edge of the top of the catcher to get to the shiny pennies! He avoided the hole altogether! Brynne was mad at me and told me I should have put the pennies in front of the Lucky Charms. We'll try that next year. Luring Leprechauns: A Simple Penny Experiment

How did we get shiny pennies? We tried a simple experiment from Jamie Woodward at Oh First Grade Friends that was free at TeachersPayTeachers. As we have been working on science notebooking this year, we used it with this experiment. We learned all about copper oxide and the effects of a weak acid, like vinegar and salt, to eliminate it. Then we rinsed half of them and did not rinse the other half. The unrinsed pennies quickly turned a greenish-blue. Those "dirty" ones were the pennies the leprechaun did not want! Stacking Rainbows for a Treasure

Then we just had some fun! I wrapped mini Hershey candy bars with rainbow colored construction paper. If they successfully stacked them without them toppling over, they got the treasures inside. It had a bit of a learning curve, but they eventually figured it out!! Meet all of my lovely co-hosts:

After you have looked at all of the neat books and activities shared by my co-hosts above, you can hop over to read all about Poppins Book Nook and the fun you can have while joining us! Updates and fun ideas can also be found on the Poppins Book Nook Facebook Page and Poppins Book Nook Pinterest Board.

Here is a reminder of all of the themes for 2014-2015. Next month's theme is "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". We are going to branch out a bit to talk about survival skills with a cool book that tells the true story of some naval aviators who crashed and had to survive at sea. There is a great field trip in the works, too! (No, we won't be heading out into the ocean in a life raft). Join us!! If you have read a book within the theme "Where in the World" this month, and did some fun activities to go along with the book, please link up with us!
 


Clip Art by Melon Headz
Posted by Nicole T at 6:00 AM