Four Leaf Clover Hunt

Today the weather around here finally felt like Spring is almost here. YAY for no more 30 degree temps!!! We actually went in the backyard today only needing a sweatshirt on! While doing some yard work I decided to instigate a four leaf clover hunt, similar to the story line in a book we read on the first day of March(see March Madness post).

As we were walking through the backyard, I asked Emery to stop and look down at her feet. I once again showed her a patch of clover. I asked, "Do you see another patch?" She briefly looked around and said, "No." That didn't work so well. I  then asked, " Do you want to try and find a four leaf clover like Lucky did in the Leprechaun book?" She immediately looked down and claimed she found one. I said, "Oh you did. Lets count the leaves." She counted one, two, three. Nope not enough. To encourage her to keep hunting I said, "Lets keep trying. Remember in the story, Lucky has a hard time finding four leaf clovers. If we keep on trying maybe we can find some too." ( At this moment in time I have just provided Lil' Em with a naturalist, logic-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial,intrapersonal lesson integrated with a previous linguistic experience)

  We kept hunting and she finally did discover there are plenty more patches of clover in our yard. To be honest, I'm sure there is more clover than grass in our yard.

Here she is counting the leaves.

In the end, we did not find a four leaf clover. Her interest wore out and she was ready to move on to another adventure. When I could tell she was done, I said maybe we will look again another time. I once again provided a linguistic moment by telling Emery the story of how I searched and searched for four leaf clovers and finally found a whole patch of them when I was a grown-up! I didn't mention I had them in the house because I still am a little weary about a 3 year old coming within grasp of my clovers...can you tell I consider them precious? I guess I'm a sucker for mythology. Actually I do want her to see them, I just need to lay out a few guidelines before she gets to see them. Plus, she really was ready to go kick her ball around. 


Here are my clovers! I will never reveal the patch location except to a very selected few. I will tell you this: I found them in my early days of teaching. I was a teaching assistant at that time. I was working in after care with a few young kids and it was near St. Patrick's Day. I suggested going out to look for four leaf clovers. I was in utter shock when we actually found some!! I had been searching my whole life for as long as I could remember. Needless to say, I picked some, we all did. We brought them inside and pressed them in a book to help flatten and preserve them. Years later I returned to this same location and there were still some! Not as many as the first time and the patch was a little farther away from the original patch. Here they are:

 Some of the leaves have pressed together. There is still four leaves though :)

For now, we will continue to hunt for four leaf clovers in our own backyard. If I'm ever in that neck of the woods again though where I know my patch grows, there is no doubt Em and I will be there searching. 


Whether you believe the four leaf clover folklore or not, exposing children to mythological stories is a key to promoting imaginative play.


~Good Luck,
M.I. MaMa