The Valley Chronicle - Leprechauns bring lots of green to Soboba Tribal Preschool

The Soboba Tribal Preschool on the Soboba Indian Reservation was full of shamrocks, leprechauns, rainbows and all things green as the youngsters celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on March 15. Since they were also celebrating a culmination of Dr. Seuss week, “Green Eggs and Ham” was read and discussed in each classroom.

The youngest preschoolers did some creative finger painting on paper plates using green to represent green eggs and orange as ham. After hearing the Seuss story, they were asked what they thought it would taste like. Answers ranged from “plants” to “just weird” and most said they wouldn’t eat it.

Like the other classes, Lucky Charms cereal was utilized quite a bit for several fun activities that also taught important lessons to the children. The youngest students filled in the letters of their printed names with the cereal shapes and all of them were encouraged to wear something green to celebrate the holiday.

Pre-K students were also welcoming springtime with a billboard stating “We are blooming” surrounded by colorful flowers created by the students. After interacting with a read-along story on the big screen about catching a leprechaun, they were asked if they thought they could catch one, unlike the unsuccessful main character in the story. Azalea MacDonald said she runs very fast and could catch him while Notoowish Velazquez said, “I run fast like Sonic (the Hedgehog).”

Activities for the day included Instructional Aide Julissa Garcia teaching them how to make a shamrock hat with pieces of different shades of green construction paper they had to tear into little pieces and glue onto a clover cutout. Using different colored Froot Loops, Instructional Aide Elena Arambula had the children string together a rainbow necklace after sorting the cereal circles by color.

Pre-K teacher Ana Garcia worked with students to sort, count and chart their findings on a graph using, you guessed it, Lucky Charms.

Kindergartners got to enjoy many different treats, creatively curated by Instructional Aide Mayra Campos. They included Good Luck cucumber slices, Pot of Gold applesauce cups, Leprechaun (lime) Jello cups, over the rainbow cupcakes, green Shamrock lemonade and Shamrock kabobs made from honeydew melon chunks, green grapes and kiwi fruit pieces. They were also given a take-home treat with the message, “You’re the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow.”

Using Lucky Charms cereal pieces, teacher Laura Aldrete guided her students to sort and match marshmallow shapes to the ones on their worksheets and then count up each one and write the amount on their papers. The exercise also allowed them to learn about the concept of less and more as they compared their charts to those of their classmates since all of them had different amounts for each shape.

Earlier that morning, the children had made rainbow hats with cutouts of leprechauns and shamrocks they had colored.

Friday also marked the end of a weeklong Scholastic Book Fair. Preschool Director Benita Torres said the drive was very successful with lots of parents buying popular titles for their children to have at home. A percentage of book sales is returned to the school that allows them to purchase books for classrooms to be enjoyed year-round.