Several small holidays happen throughout the school year that kids love to celebrate! But, teachers wonder how to still meet the learning activities for the school day while having a little fun at the same time. Holidays like St. Patrick’s Day can be super fun AND still allow you to teach! We have found 17 Activities for St. Patrick’s Day that let you plan fun academic activities centered around this holiday! So put on some green, and let’s get started!
ELA Activities for St. Patrick’s Day
Activity 1. St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt: Send your students outside to find all of the spring things on the list. Add in a little bit of leprechaun magic by writing a rhyme or riddle on the whiteboard. The group(s) that find all of the items on the list get a prize. It could be chocolate “gold” coins or a bag of rainbow Skittles.
2. Partner Play for Fluency: Mix things up in your fluency and comprehension center this week. Your students will pair up and practice the lines of the play, adding in personality and actions. On St. Patrick’s Day, allow them the opportunity to perform their play in a mini Reader’s Theater.
Added Bonus… they get to work on comprehension as well after reading the play.
3. Compound Word Rainbows: I love sneaking in a little arts and crafts during my day. This rainbow may not have a pot of gold, but it is gold work on compound words, another one of our academic activities for St. Patty’s Day!
4. St. Patrick’s Day Word Work: We have a variety of spelling activities for the month of March, but the ones I am definitely pulling out as St. Patrick’s Day activities are Rainbow Spelling St. Patrick’s Words, and Gold Coin Tic-Tac-Toe.
Movement Activities for St. Patrick’s Day
5. St Patrick’s Day PE Games: Leprechauns On The Run: My kiddos love P.E. with Mr. G’s activities. Mr. G entered so many homes during remote learning days, and this video brightens up many of my kiddos.
6. The Leprechaun Dance: is a movement brain break that kids will love as one of their activities for St. Patrick’s Day! All my students love it when we let loose and dance!
7. Freeze and Copy: students freeze and copy the pose on the screen. Freeze and Copy is a slight change from a standard freeze dance as the screen shows your students the pose to freeze in!
Math Activities for St. Patrick’s Day
8. Number Bonds with Clovers: Add in a little “luck” while practicing number bonds. Easily differentiated with practice pages for 10-20 and 20-100, you can choose which activity is best for your students.
9. Working with Money: We may not have a pot of gold, but we can still work with money!!! Pass out some plastic coins to your students and have them solve word problems related to money.
10. Rainbow Math: Besides clovers and money, you can work on some rainbow-themed math activities for St. Patrick’s Day too. Whether your students are coloring addition problems to 120 or balancing equations on the ends of a rainbow, the bright colors are sure to brighten everyone’s day.
STEM Activities
11. Leprechaun Traps: This is one of my favorite activities for St. Patrick’s. Some mischievous leprechauns messed up some things in our room. (I usually put some soap on the mirror, dump some legos, leave green glitter on the counters, etc., before the students arrive.) I ask the students how to stop these little mess makers and guide them to saying, “let’s trap them!”. Then, I provide materials for students to plan and build their traps in small groups. Mysteriously, each year these leprechauns spring the traps, leave some green glitter in the wake, and vanish.
You can also choose to include your students’ families in this project. I have a home project letter ready to go for you to send home, so families can help design and build those leprechaun traps. Bring them back to school and see if anyone is able to catch the little guy.
12. Coin Bridges: While you have all of those coins out to add to your leprechaun traps, use them for a construction project. How many coins are needed to build a bridge? And once the bridge is built, can it hold anything without falling down?
St. Patrick’s Day Writing Activities
13. Directed Drawing Pot of Gold: This double-sided worksheet offers students 6 step directions with open space to draw a pot of gold. On the second page, students can write the word, vocabulary words, and story writing.
14. What Would You do with a Pot of Gold?: Now that your students know how to draw a pot of gold, what would they do if they found one…? Your students get to pretend to be leprechauns and let their imagination run free as they write a story about what they would do if they found a pot of gold.
Snacks
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with some yummy classroom snacks:
15. Lucky Charms are perfect whether you are graphing those marshmallows or not! They make boxes now with just the marshmallows, but I buy the regular package and let my kiddos eat it all!
16. Leprechaun Magic Sauce: Sprinkle Magic Dust on some yummy individual applesauce cups, stir it, and just like that, the kids will have a Leprechaun Magic Dust Treat! All you need is enough individual cups of applesauce for your class and a package of lime jello powder. For some extra fun, sprinkle a little of the powder somewhere and leave a note for the students to find near the spill, explaining the magic powers of the dust and the instructions. Watch the kids as their faces light up as that magic dust turns their applesauce GREEN!
17. St. Patrick’s Day Trail Mix is a perfect mix of sweet and salty: trail mix. I included a recipe, but make your own as long as you include some green skittles or green m&m’s!
I love when I can sneak some fun into my academics. By doing St. Patrick’s Day activities, I leave knowing the kids had fun AND did schoolwork for the day. Even my most resistant students accomplish some work when I do these kind of activities! What St. Patrick’ Day activities are you doing in your room?
WRITTEN BY: SUZANNE KELLEY
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