The Groundhog has decided how much longer winter will last and Valentine’s Day has come and gone. That can only mean one thing – it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day!
To help you transition from pink hearts to green shamrocks in the classroom we have put together all of our favorite St. Patrick’s Day activities. These cover everything you need to cover to meet your core standards this month, while also providing a variety of activities to keep students engaged and excited all month long.
St. Patrick’s Day Read Aloud for Elementary
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to catch a leprechaun?! What would you do if you did catch one?!
While we would love to hear your replies to these questions we think your students would also love to answer these questions. Moreover, having asked our former students these questions we know that you as the teacher will love to hear what they have to say!
How to Catch a Leprechaun Read Aloud
We won’t leave you hanging by just having you ask your students these questions though. We have you covered with everything you need to help your students explore this fun idea of catching a leprechaun through one of our favorite read alouds.
This read aloud is aligned with the book How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace. If you are not familiar with this book, it follows a leprechaun on his nightly adventures as he visits different kid’s homes. At each home he comes across a trap that has been set by the kids to try and catch him.
Your students will love waiting to see what the next trap is and if it will work. Moreover, they will love the opportunity to build their own trap as part of their March learning activities.
How to Catch a Leprechaun Reading Activities
Just like all of our read aloud resources this read aloud packet comes with several lesson plans. These lesson plans can be used across the course of 3, 4, or even 5 days!
All of the activities can be used digitally by uploading them into Google or Seesaw. In addition, they can also be printed if you want to create more traditional St. Patrick’s day worksheets for students.
Each lesson and activity brings students back to the book with some form of comprehension task. This allows students to dive deeper into the book each day. Moreover, it provides students with different types of activities to help them explore the book and literacy from several different directions. Below is a quick overview of the types of activities you will find in this read aloud.
- Text Dependent Questions and Answers
- Key Ideas and Details Graphic Organizer
- Learning from Text and Illustrations Graphic Organizer
- Writing Prompt
- Craftivity Instructions and Pattern
- Graphic organizers pre-loaded to Google Slides and Seesaw
This is the perfect resource to introduce students to St. Patrick’s Day. We suggest using it the week leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. Then, after you have explored how to catch a leprechaun students can explore another viewpoint of helping a leprechaun escape in our St. Patrick’s Day STEM project.
St. Patrick’s Day STEM Activity or Elementary
The wonderful thing about holiday activities is there are often several different ways to explore learning while staying connected to the holiday theme. For example, while your students will explore how to catch a leprechaun during your reading time they can then explore how to help a leprechaun through STEM.
In our St. Patrick’s Day STEM lesson for first and second grade – students are presented with a problem to solve: Leprechaun is about to get caught! He needs to cross the river quickly but has nothing to carry his gold.
Faced with this problem, students will follow the Engineering Design Process to solve the problem by building a boat to help Leprechaun cross the river.
To help guide them through the process students will complete the following tasks:
- Imagine (Brainstorm): How can you design a boat that will float with coins inside?
- Explore: Content-specific vocabulary
- Explore: Why do objects sink or float?
- Plan: Draw a picture of their idea
- Create & Test: Build their boat and test it
- Improve: Make improvements to their boat (if needed)
- Reflect: What about your design worked well? What changes did you make?
Not only will this process engage them in critical thinking and problem-solving but it will also further excite them about learning about St. Patrick’s Day.
This is the perfect activity to use on St. Patrick’s Day or leading up to it.
St. Patrick’s Day Digital Activities
Since you cover several core areas each day in elementary school we have created themed activities for all of those areas. Above you have a read aloud and a STEM activity for reading and math and science.
While these activities are focused on the fictional character of a leprechaun, there is a lot of factual history surrounding St. Patrick’s Day. Therefore, we have created a series of digital activities to teach students about the history of St. Patrick’s Day.
These digital activities follow the format of all of our learning quests. Students begin with a focus activity where they make predictions. Then, they move into reading an informational text.
There are several ways to explore these activities. They can be done as a whole class, in small groups, or individually. To support your students in reading the text we have provided a digital reading that they can follow along with.
After students have explored the informational text they demonstrate their understanding of the text through a series of learning activities. These activities include digital activities such as matching and moving pictures.
In addition, students will have an opportunity to write about what they learned. There is also a final quiz to demonstrate their overall understanding of the history of St. Patrick’s Day.
Just like the read aloud, this series of activities can be split up over several days. Therefore, it is great to pair with the read aloud for lessons during the week leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.
Spring Themed Lesson Plans
St. Patrick’s Day is not only a fun holiday to explore on its own, but it is also the perfect time to begin exploring Spring themed activities. Therefore, if you are ready to begin planning your next lesson after the holiday we have provided some of our favorite activities to choose from.
Like our St. Patrick’s Day lesson plans, all of these activities are ready to teach and come with detailed lesson plans to follow. From Easter to Earth Day there is something for every week from now until summer!
