24 Awesome St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Your Classroom

Most of us know St. Patrick’s Day as a fun and jovial holiday involving mischievous little leprechauns, rainbows, shamrocks, and of course, lots of green! However, it is also a day to celebrate the life and times of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Here are 24 creative activities and lessons involving ways to incorporate aspects of this March 17th holiday into the different core subject areas.

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1. Read a St. Patrick’s Day themed book

Check out this amazing list of our 17 favorite St. Patrick’s Day related books. Your students will love learning about Ireland, St. Patrick, and, of course, taking adventures with those mischievous little leprechauns!

2. Make a leprechaun corner bookmark

While there’s something to be said for well-worn spines and dog-eared corners, teach your students to care for their books by using a bookmark to save their place. This little leprechaun is the perfect reading companion and is quite simple to make, thanks to this awesome video tutorial.

Source: REDTEDArt

3. Make music with rainbow shakers

This activity may require you to do some prep work, including asking parents to send in empty paper towel rolls and volunteer a few other supplies (foam rolls, rice, and jingle bells), but the end result is worth it! It’s a rainbow shaker you can use to play music, and it’s a great take-home project for the kids.

Source: Happy Mothering

4. Send your students on a scavenger hunt

 

Get your students up and about, hunting for gold as they try to find the items on this free printable scavenger hunt. You can time the hunt, create groups, or even conduct the activity outdoors. To extend the fun, you might have your students decorate old tissue boxes as treasure chests in which they can store their findings.

Source: foodfunfamily

5. Create acrostic poetry based on Irish history

St. Patrick’s Day is so much more than rainbows and shamrocks (although we do love those, too). Read a book on Irish history or watch these videos to introduce students to Irish facts. Then distribute acrostic poem templates with words like “leprechaun,” “shamrock,” and “St. Patrick” for your students to complete. They can share with the class when they are done.

6. Conduct a hands-on experiment with green slime

A complex chemistry lesson disguised as an ooey, gooey free-for-all? Count us in! Choose from one of four slime recipes, all made from ingredients that can easily be found at your grocery store (although you may need to look elsewhere for St. Patty’s Day–appropriate glitter, sequins, and other holiday additions). Teach your students about the states of matter as they work, or ask them to record their impressions and observations of this festive lab experiment.

Source: Little Bins for Little Hands

7. Study the movement of water molecules with the rainbow ring experiment

Demonstrate the movement of water molecules (and create a rainbow) through this clean yet colorful experiment. Ask your students to come up with a hypothesis and record the experimentation process in a notebook, or download a free, printable worksheet at the link below. One of our favorite St. Patrick’s Day activities!

Source: Creating Readers and Writers

8. Make rainbows in your classroom—no rain required

Begin the lesson by explaining to your students how rainbows form. One option is to read aloud The Rainbow and You. Then, with a prism (or even a glass of water), sunlight, and the right angle, you can create rainbows on the floor, walls, and ceiling of your classroom. Adjust the amount of light and angles to vary the width and size of the rainbows. Have your students record their observations or draw pictures of the rainbows they’ve created.

Source: Mom to 2 Posh Little Divas

9. Count your coins with a penny float experiment

You don’t need gold coins to bring a little magic into science class—ordinary pennies will do! Using small plastic pots from your favorite craft store (plastic cups or aluminum foil will also do the trick), a container of water, and a couple of dollars in pennies, your students can learn about mass, volume, weight, and other measurements while feeling like leprechauns.

Source: Little Bins for Little Hands

10. Spin Irish yarns with these story starters

Inspire your students to think creatively and write a story about what they would do if they found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Encourage them to think about the characters, conflict, and resolution in their tales. Either paste the story on cauldron cut-outs or use Word to create a simple lined page with a festive border. See a thorough lesson plan!

Source: apples & abc’s

11. Think critically about how to catch a leprechaun

Critical thinking? Check. Creativity? Check. Glitter? Check. Ask your students to devise a clever plan to catch a leprechaun by practicing sequence writing and the imperative voice. What materials do they need? What would their trap look like? Have them present their ideas to the class and follow up with a class discussion about the best leprechaun-trapping tactics. Take this one step further by splitting your class into groups of three or four students and have them build the traps they imagined.

Source: First Grade Fairytales and Little Bins for Little Hands

12. Shade shamrocks to practice synonyms, antonyms, and homophones

In English class, the answers are rarely black-and-white, so why not make them green (and red and orange)? Teach your students about synonyms, antonyms, and homophones with this shading shamrock worksheet. Alternatively, prepare shamrock cut-outs and have your students write words on one side of the shamrock with the accompanying synonym, antonym, or homophone on the other.

Source: Everything Education

13. Go green by turning old milk jugs into planters

You don’t need to sport a top hat and coat to go green this St. Patrick’s Day. Teach your students the importance of conservation and recycling by having them plant herbs or flowers in old plastic milk jugs. If possible, do this project outside to celebrate the warmer weather and ask your students what plants need to grow and remain healthy. Encourage them to make a list of small actions they can do every day to protect the planet.

Source: Cupcakes & Cutlery

14. Count your gold on math worksheets

You don’t have to stray too far from your usual curriculum in order to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. These upper-elementary math worksheets cover third- through fifth-grade-level core math concepts, such as multiplication and division, fractions, and whole number operations—all while centered on the theme of St. Patrick’s Day.

Source: Kelly McCown

15. Make a Lucky Charms bar graph

With this easy-to-prep activity, your students can practice counting and graphing while enjoying a sweet treat. For a class of 15–20 students, two boxes of Lucky Charms cereal will suffice. Then you just need a measuring cup, crayons, and a simple graph drawn on paper. Have your students count and record the number of marshmallows they find. Then have them share the results with the class. You can also easily turn this activity into a lesson on fractions or probability.

Source: How to Homeschool My Child

16. Look for luck with a four-leaf clover hunt

What better excuse to get outside on an almost-spring day than going on a four-leaf-clover hunt? If you’ve got a grassy area by your school’s playground, take your students outside to first assemble this tiny book of clover facts before searching for a four-leaf clover of their own.

Source: Green Grubs Garden Club

17. Work your poetry chops by writing limericks

Print these simple limerick instructions and have your students write their own to present them to the class. This activity is great for upper elementary school and middle school students alike.

Source: education.com

18. Learn an Irish step dance

 

Show your students a video clip or two of professional Irish step dancers before breaking down the steps with an easy-to-follow tutorial. This is a great activity for gym class or any time you notice your students getting a bit restless. The steps may be complicated, but your students will enjoy being on their feet and listening to traditional Irish music.

19. Play a game of St. Patrick’s Day bingo

Who doesn’t like playing bingo? This St. Patrick’s Day themed bingo set comes with 24 different cards and plenty of shamrock space markers. Instead of calling out bingo, have your students call out shamrock when they get five in a row!

Source: Amazon.com

20. Make Rainbow Flipbooks

These fun flipbooks will have your students chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This link has everything you need to make the books come alive.

21. Create a rainbow bulletin board

Find the gold at the end of the rainbow with this beautiful and colorful bulletin board idea. Hopefully, this will attract some naughty leprechauns, to boot! Check out all of our bulletin boards for March!

Source: Pinterest/Find the Gold at the End of the Rainbow

22. Get Creative with St. Patrick’s Day journal prompts

This list of 13 St. Patrick’s Day related journal prompts will have your students’ pencils moving in no time!

Source: Journalbuddies

23. St. Patrick’s bundle for intermediate elementary grades

There are plenty of St. Patrick’s Day themed activities you can incorporate into your lessons for upper elementary grades, too. Check out this fabulous bundle that covers all the core subject areas.

Source: Ashleigh

24. Solve a St. Patrick’s Day mystery

Your students will love solving mysteries during your math block while honing in on their critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills. Each pack is tailored to a specific grade level and includes a video hook and five related worksheets.

Source: Mrs J’s Resource Creations

We promise you’ll have good luck with any one of these St. Patrick’s Day activities. Have any others you’d like to share? Visit our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook to share your ideas.

Plus, check out fun STEM activities for St. Patrick’s Day and our free St. Patrick’s Day alphabet printable.