Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day in your classroom? We sure do around here! I love all holidays and any excuse to add a bit of sparkle to our lessons. If you're looking for some fun ways to bring the luck of the Irish and some leprechaun magic to your classroom, I've got just the thing! Today I'm sharing 5 fun and engaging St. Patrick's Day Activities your students will love!
1. St. Patrick's Day Books
First up, I always love to take some time to swap out my books when we start a new theme. I love to read seasonal books aloud as a special mid-day activity. When the kiddos are just coming back from lunch and need a minute to cool off and calm down, we spend some time reading fun picture books. Some of my favorites for St. Patrick's Day include:
- How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace
- The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing
- St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting
- St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons
- The Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards
- Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover by Lucille Colandro
Some of these picture books provide facts or traditional folktales of St. Patrick's day while others are just super silly. I like to use a mix of books that align with holiday traditions and others that I know will simply make my students smile. After reading aloud, I also make them available for students to flip through in the class library during silent reading time.
2. Lucky Numbers Math Activities
Once we've read a few fun books about St. Patrick's Day, it's time to jump into our activities! In my classroom, I like to sprinkle holiday activities throughout our center time. This is a fun way to add some interest and keep centers feeling fresh. One of my favorites is this Lucky Numbers Math Resource.
This resource focuses on teen numbers, ones and tens. There are a few different activities included that are all perfect for center time as well as whole-group learning. Lucky Numbers Math includes Number sense puzzles, Lucky Numbers Spin & Build, Spin & Cover Activity, Lucky Numbers Gameboard, 30 ten-frame BINGO boards (with calling cards), and 5 no prep printable practice pages.
These activities all help children practice using teen numbers in a fun way. The "Lucky Charms" theme of the pages is sure to make students smile as well! I like to assign the puzzles, games, and spin activities for center time. Then, we use the BINGO game as a special, afternoon activity we can play as a class!
3. Counting Coins Write the Room
Do your kiddos enjoy write the room activities? Mine sure do! It's such a nice change of pace, and especially helpful on days when students seem restless. We use write the room to practice all kinds of skills, but during March, I love to use this Counting Coins Resource.
This St. Patrick's Day-themed write-the-room activity focuses on counting mixed coins and adding up their value. This is such a great activity for students learning to recognize coins. This resource includes 24 numbered task cards and 4 different recording sheets so you can decide how many cards to use at a time. I also made a coin identification strip to help remind students of the names and values of each coin.
This activity is a great one to pull out when your students need to shake out some wiggles and move around. My kiddos love traveling around the room and counting the coins on each card. You can also lay the cards out on the desks and use this activity as a "scoot game".
4. No-Prep St. Patrick's Day Math & Phonics Puzzles
If you're anything like me, you probably spend a fair bit of time prepping fun center activities and lessons for your students. I'm always happy to do this, because I know hands-on activities are so crucial to learning. Since I'm usually prepping a lot of lessons each month, I always make sure to sprinkle in some no-prep activities too.
Using a blend of both types of these activities helps to ensure my students get some variety while balancing my prep time as well. No-prep activities don't have to mean boring, standard worksheets though. In my classroom, I'm a huge fan of using No-Prep Mystery Puzzles!
These fun pages are super simple to use, just print and go! Plus, students love to use them. The ones we use focus on math and phonics concepts, so they are a great way to review throughout the month. In March, this set of puzzles focuses on CVCE Words, Synonyms, Prepositions, Addition within 20, Equal Equations, and Adding 3 Numbers and more!
To use, students will solve for each box and glue down the correct square. Once all the pieces are glued down the mystery picture is revealed! Students love to color these fun pictures after they complete their work. These activities are great for independent work, homework, fast finishers, and review.
5. St. Patrick's Day Place Value Craft
Do you enjoy classroom craft activities, but find them hard to squeeze into your busy days? My best advice for making crafts fit is to incorporate crafts that also help target skills like this St. Patrick's Day Place Value Craft.
This fun craft activity helps students practice breaking down 2-digit numbers into expanded form and then uses coins to illustrate the number. This cute leprechaun craft uses coins to show how many tens and how many ones are needed to make each number. This craft is also an "easy-prep" activity, meaning all you need to do is print off the pages and let students get to work! They'll love coloring their leprechauns and breaking down a 2-digit number into tens and ones.
This St. Patrick's Day craft is such a great way to have students work on place value and it doubles as the cutest bulletin board display! This resource also includes center activities and worksheets to further facilitate place value practice in your classroom.
Plan Your St. Patrick's Day Activities
I hope these ideas provided some inspiration to help you begin planning your own St. Patrick's Day lessons. Including seasonal activities is simple when they are filled with meaningful skills practice! If you're looking for even more educational St. Patrick's Day activities, be sure to swing by my Teachers Pay Teachers store to check out all of my March resources!
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