R is for Rainbow Preschool Lesson

This lesson is part of a weekly series of home preschool lessons I do for 2 and 3 year olds. Click here to see all the other lessons we’ve done.

I love when I can tie my Letter of the Week lesson into the season/approaching holiday and it was a lot of fun to have a prominent St Patrick’s Day aspect to this lesson.

We always start our lessons by watching the clip from Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD for the featured letter and then making a letter craft. This letter craft idea came from Crystal and Comp

“The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow” by Sean Callahan is the perfect book for a Rainbow/St Patrick’s Day blend lesson! It’s about a leprechaun named Roy G Biv who has lost his rainbow and needs a girl to donate something of every color of the rainbow so he can make a new rainbow. Some of the things are hard for her to part with, but she does it so the leprechaun can bring out the sun and keep the rain from ruining the St Patrick’s Day parade her grandpa is playing his bagpipes in.

After reading the book we made this rainbow chain craft while talking about objects in each of the colors as we hooked them together. Then we went on a color hunt of our own.

We read Ten Lucky Leprechauns and the kids made their own leprechaun hats which they wore as they took turns hiding a pot of gold (I just laminated a picture of one) and having each other find it.

These were other books we read as we talked about St. Patrick’s Day and leprechauns:

We used these St Patrick’s Day count and clip carts and prewriting practice sheets (which I laminate and have the kids use dry erase crayons on) for learning activities and the kids colored several St Patrick’s Day Do a Dot sheets with our Do a Dot markers.

A highlight of the lesson was the kids going on a leprechaun treasure hunt around the house following clues. I printed out part of this free set to do it and had chocolate coins for the prize at the end.