Silly McGilly

He’s here, he’s here!!!  It’s Silly McGilly!

I saw a lot of blog posts about Silly McGilly last year and knew I had to have him!!!

When I first started teaching, I used to have a leprechaun visit my classroom all the time in the week leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.  That leprechaun caused a lot of problems . . . he messed up the classroom every single time he came.  Every.Single.Time.  Every.Day.In.A.Row.

And whenever that happened, my class went nuts.

NUTS, I tell you.  They would LOSE it.

And then I spent a lot of time trying to get my kids to FIND IT again.  And by FIND IT, I mean ACT LIKE NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS IN A CLASSROOM WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE LEARNING.

And then, somewhere between this and that, and my class size increasing, and maybe even some kinder teachers at my school stealing borrowing some of my exact ideas so that when I got their kids, all I heard was we did this in kindergarten (which makes me think I need to teach kindergarten so I can get in on the ground floor) . . . the leprechaun stopped coming.

I know.  It was the darnedest thing.

But then I met Silly McGilly.

And he is adorable.  And he is silly.  And he comes with a book.  A BOOK, I tell you!!!

The book tells us that Silly McGilly is a leprechaun taking time off from making fairy shoes during the month of March to play tricks.  Once you read the book to your class, you have Silly McGilly waiting by a window so you can invite him in!

This little guy is not going to mess up my classroom, I can promise you that.  I have too many kiddos for that these days, and I am older, and I just can’t.  I can’t, I said.

But he’ll play a few ones . . . like maybe leave a trail of gold (glitter) . . . that one is always fun, although not for our custodian, but we’re friends so I think I can get away with it.

Lauren at A Teachable Teacher had some great ideas that include:

• Leave “little green footprints” in and around your classroom
• Bury a “pot of gold [coins]” on the playground
• Leave “rainbow snacks” (skittles, fruit, etc.)
• Remove all green math manipulatives (or leave only green ones out)
• Leave a “green” note on the whiteboard
• Spray green silly string
• Leave green slime or play doh

The Silly McGilly website also has tons of ideas and a specific tab for teachers!  You can even learn with Silly McGilly because they offer free downloads!

I can’t wait for Silly McGilly to visit our classroom!  A whole month of shenanigans seems a little too much for me at the moment so I’ll be introducing this guy around March 14.  Which means, if you still want to grab him for yourself, you’ve still got plenty of time!

🙂