St Patrick’s Day, on March 17th, is one of my favourite days of the year. It is celebrated around the world with parades, concerts and fireworks. It was originally started to commemorate St Patrick, a patron saint of Ireland. He was known to have been the person who brought Christianity to the country, and it is also believed that he rid the island of snakes! Now, St Patrick’s Day is becoming more and more a time to celebrate Irish culture around the world.
I would love to share with you a few of my favourite activities that I have used over the years in my classroom.
A great introduction to St Patrick’s Day.
A couple of years ago I found this little video on YouTube that introduces St Patrick’s Day in an easy to understand, kid-friendly way. It talks about the origin of the use of the colour green, leprechauns, clover, the traditional meal of corned beef, potatoes, carrots and cabbage and a brief introduction to St Patrick.
Another great little video is this one from Laurah J at theESOLodyssey that I have also used in my classroom. It gives a little more detail of St Patrick’s life.
Some stories to read about leprechauns.
This is a delightfully illustrated narrative poem by Adam Wallace that will make your students giggle. After reading this you may decide it’s necessary to build your own leprechaun traps!
An Irish twist on a Christmas favourite.
Two harpists, humble Old Pat and his student Young Tom, are on their way to a contest to find the greatest harpist in all of Ireland. When they meet up with a mischievous little leprechaun, things don’t go according to Young Tom’s plan.
A sweet story about a shoemaker leprechaun who must outsmart a greedy man who wants to steal the leprechaun’s pot of gold. Beautiful illustrations that tell a story in themselves.
Click on these links to hear the stories read aloud:
Rainbow Facts
As St Patrick’s Day is early in our Australian school year it is a perfect time to practise or introduce Rainbow Facts. Rainbow Facts are some of the most important basic facts for your students to learn by heart.
If you are into music and singing this link takes you to a catchy little tune for Rainbow Facts to 10.
This super cute poster comes from A Cupcake for the Teacher
Click on the link below to take you to a free download of this poster and a worksheet for your students.
A Rainbow Facts card game
An exciting card game my students loved to play to practise their Rainbow Facts.
Use a pack of playing cards with all the picture cards and tens removed.
Deal 4 cards, face up in a 2X2 grid. Place the rest of the cards face down in a pile.
Players take turns to identify two cards that add up to 10. They point to the cards they are choosing and say e.g. 7 and 3 makes 10. If the other players agree, the first player takes the cards and places them face down in front of themselves.
Play continues in this manner.
If a player cannot find a combination that makes 10, they select one card and replace it with one from the pile. The discarded card goes back into the pack. That is their turn.
After each player’s turn the grid is replenished from the pile.
The winner is the player with the most cards when all possible combinations have been made.
St Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt
Another super fun activity from A Cupcake for the Teacher. I love this St Patrick’s Day Treasure Hunt to add some excitement to your classroom!
Bump
Have you ever had your students play Bump? This was probably one of the favourite early finishers’ tasks in my class.
These games are easy to prepare and quick to set up for your students. It is an independent game for pairs that helps consolidate addition facts. All they need is a game-board, two dice and some connector cubes or small blocks.
These games are available at:
Bee Happy Teaching in Australian dollars
Australian Teachers Marketplace in Australian Dollars
Made By Teachers in US dollars
TPT in US dollars
Paddies Popcorn anyone?
St Patrick’s Day Popcorn from Two Sisters - how good does this look?
Or maybe a little Leprechaun Popcorn from Mom Foodie?
Colour by Code
Why not combine some cute colouring in pictures with some maths facts? These St Patrick’s Day Colour by Code activities are an easy to prepare activity to help your students use their knowledge of addition and subtraction facts whilst having fun and creating a cute St Patrick’s Day picture. Great to fill in a quiet moment, fantastic in Math centres/rotations or for homework in the weeks leading up to St Patrick's Day.
I hope you enjoy St Patrick's Day in your classroom and you can use some of these ideas!
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