Can you believe that it’s the middle of March already?! I am completely fine with that, bring on spring! But this also means that St. Patrick’s day is right around the corner – Friday to be exact.
St. Patrick’s day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in the classroom. This is partiall because it means that we’ve turned the corner and spring is almost here – I am all about celebrating everything turning green! I also love this holiday because it’s magical and whimsical and mischievous, and I fully believe that children need the opportunity to enjoy these special days while they are still little.
If you haven’t started planning yet, or you’re looking for some activities to supplement your classroom centers, these are a few of my favorites:
Leprechaun Counting: Use these cute juggling leprechauns to help students practice counting and number recognition. Each leprechaun has a number on his leg, the children can count out that number of gold coins for the leprechaun to juggle. This set includes leprechauns numbered 1-20.
St. Patrick’s Day Numbers: Use these numbers to practice one to one correspondence, counting practice, and numeral recognition. Students can match the ten frames to the corresponding numerals, or they can use counters or small erasers to count and cover the shamrocks on each number.
St. Patrick’s Day Alphabet Book: This book is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day while encouraging literacy. Each letter corresponds with a Irish-themed vocabulary word which will help children practice letter sounds. Print one for each child, or a few for a center. You could also have children create their own St. Patrick’s themed alphabet to go along with each of the letters.
Leprechaun Traps: This pack includes 6 notes from a friendly leprechaun which encourage students to be creative in their attempts to catch him. There are detailed instructions for each card, so that teachers can easily prepare the materials to be left by the leprechaun. This set also contains four charts which ask students to make a prediction about their traps, and what the leprechaun will do the next day. This is a great activity to encourage creativity, critical thinking, and cause and effect, while exploring basic STEM principles. You can read more about this activity here.
St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Observations: Give the youngest children the opportunity to practice making observations using real photos of shamrocks. This pack includes a number of questions to ask children as they study the included photos, as well as color gradient strips that children can use to practice matching the colors that they see in the photos, and cropped sections of the photos that children can match with larger photos.
The pack also includes a list of suggestions for extending this learning experience through exploring your own outdoor space, and ideas for additional games that can be played using the included pieces, As well as a technical drawing activity that encourages students to create a technical drawing using an actual shamrock as a drawing guide.
St. Patrick’s Day Memory: Memory is a great game for all ages! Whether you use these cards with younger students as a simple matching exercise, with older students as a traditional memory game, to hide around the classroom for students to find the matches, or as a tool for partnering students, these cute shamrocks will help add some festivity to your St. Patrick’s day!
St. Patrick’s Day Classroom Decorations: This set includes everything that you need to host a classroom party – purchase the set once and use it every year! The decorations in this set includes a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” bunting, cupcake picks (or stickers), treat bag toppers, desk name tags, and a door decoration. This set also includes templates for a class Shamrock wreath, a craftivity that will allow all of your students to take part in preparing for the class party!
Break up the every day monotony with some of these whimsical activities that are sure to get little imaginations running wild!
