March 17!! The Luck of the Irish!! Leprechauns and a pot of gold!! This date means Shamrock Shakes at McDonald’s (for a limited time), lucky four leaf clovers, and pinches for those not smart enough to wear green. It marks the 60th anniversary of the day that Chicago dyes their river green!

Traditions are also a part of several of the Avon elementary classes. The first graders did a lot of celebrating for Saint Patrick’s Day. The meaning of Saint Patrick’s Day and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland celebrates itage and culture of the Irish. The first graders made leprechaun traps at home with their families and brought them back to school on the 16th so they could try to trap the leprechaun. When they came in that morning, they found notes from the leprechaun in their traps. Mrs. Benita Kuhlman said, “I’ve done leprechaun traps for years. The kids just love coming to school and checking to see if they caught anything in their traps.”

Mrs. Kuhlman did a Skittles experiment with them as well. She laid Skittles in a circle around a plate and had the first graders put warm water on their plates. Once the water reached the Skittles, it dissolved the coloring and made a rainbow effect in the water. The first graders loved that the S’s off the skittles floated on top of the water. She also put green food coloring in their water bottles so, when they came to school, she told the first graders that the leprechaun had peed in their water bottles.

She also put a leprechaun hunt together for them to go around the school and read clues to try and find him. Mrs Kuhlman said, “The scavenger hunt was the most fun, and the kids like to get out of the classroom and see the bigger kids in the hallways.”