“God needed laughter in the world, So he made the Irish race, For they can meet life with a smile And turn a happy face.” –from The Book of Irish Blessings, author unknown.
A green mist seemed to shimmer in the sunlight that streamed through the window as I walked into my kindergarten classroom on St. Patrick’s Day morning many years ago. A little green hat and jacket lay on a book. Tiny green footprints on the floor and across a few desks left mute evidence that a small person had danced through the room during the night– a very small person.
Then the first kindergarteners arrived. Their eyes grew big. “Oh, look! Mrs. Manos, was a leprechaun in our room?”
“A leprechaun? Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Well, where is he now, Mrs. Manos? Is he hiding?”
So began an excited hunt. Little ones searched high and low, looking for that mischievous leprechaun who had dared invade our kindergarten space.
One little boy declared he saw him slipping around the corner of the room. Some third-graders sauntered down the hall and heard the commotion going on in the kindergarten room (this was before the 8 o’clock bell rang for more serious stuff.) A kindergartener pulled him in. Soon third graders were helping the kindergarteners look. but no one found that elusive leprechaun.
“It was you, wasn’t it, Mrs. Manos?” asked a little girl, her eyes shining.
“Could be,” I admitted. “But it’s fun to pretend, isn’t it?”
“So, was he here or wasn’t he?” someone else asked.
“I confess that I am the big leprechaun who left a pretend bunch of clues that looked like we had an elfin visitor. Actually, it was all make-believe.”
That was fine with the kindergarteners. They were a super bunch of children with active imaginations. They knew their teacher did whacky things like setting up a scene to look as if an imaginary visitor from Ireland had dropped by an Oklahoma classroom. They took it all in stride but it was a lively start to a St. Pat’s Day.
As we went through the lunchroom later, one little girl was telling our cook about the adventure. “It looked like a leprechaun had come through our room,” she said. Then she remembered the hat and jacket. “And when he left, he wasn’t wearing a stitch!”
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