St. Patrick’s Day
~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for St. Patrick’s Day ~
Sections for this Theme
Books
*Books highlighted in purple are religious books
Activities
Play Dough
I collected lids from bottles to use as cutters for the children to cut gold coins out of play dough. You can buy small black plastic kettles at Halloween to use as the leprechauns’ pot of gold.
St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Every year our school has a St. Patrick’s Day parade, and our class makes noisemakers, flags, and hats. We also wear green leis or necklaces. Most of the children in the school spray their hair green, and the girls wear green nail polish.
Parade Hats
We make the hat using a top hat style shape for the front (cut out of black paper), with a black band around the back. Children glue a yellow paper buckle and green shamrock to the front.
Parade Shakers
I’ve made shakers two different ways. To make egg shakers, I buy white plastic Easter eggs. Children scoop rice into it, close it, and decorate it with St. Patrick’s Day stickers. To make paper plate shakers, have children decorate the back side of a paper plate with green crayons and Shamrock cut-outs or stickers. Children scoop a handful of dry beans on the undecorated side of the plate. Fold the plate over to a semi-circle shape and tape the edge with green masking tape. Have children tape crepe paper streamers to the shaker.
Parade Flags
The flags are made of half of a piece of kelly green felt, hot-glued to a small dowel rod. I bought a package of dowel rods about 12 inches long at a craft store. The children decorate the flag with a light green felt shamrock and gold glitter.
St. Patrick’s Day Necklace
Have the children string about 10 green and white pony beads onto a piece of thin green ribbon (tie one bead on one end so the beads won’t fall off). Punch a hole in a craft foam shamrock, and have each child string a shamrock into the middle, then string 10 more pony beads on the other side of the shamrock. Tie the ends together and wear as a necklace.
Shamrock Fabric Collage
I trace an outline of a shamrock on green paper for each child with a black Sharpie. Children cut out the shamrock and glue on small squares of green cloth (stripes, plaids, dots, ginghams, calicos, etc.).
If I Had a Wish
Children think of what they would wish for if they caught a leprechaun and could have one wish. Their dictation is written at the bottom of the paper, “If I had one wish, I would wish for ….” They draw a picture of their wish.
Story Retelling
[Literacy]
Choose a St. Patrick’s Day themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words. Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.
Sorting Shamrocks by Size
[Math]
These are craft foam shamrocks purchased in a package from a craft store. These shamrocks come in 3 different sizes and can be sorted by size: small, medium, large.
Shamrock Counting
[Math]
I use a shamrock shaped Martha Stewart craft puncher to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Print out the numeral sheets. Have children count out the correct amount of paper cutouts to glue onto the numeral.
Magic Leprechaun Drink
Mix a package of lemonade, add yellow food coloring to make the color brighter. Add a drop of blue food coloring to each child’s clear cup, then pour in the lemonade. It will magically turn green! In the past, we’ve had doughnuts with green icing which were really neat!
Leprechaun Hunt
We read several stories about leprechauns. During the children’s nap time, leprechauns leave a note to the children with a green glitter trail leading them to a special treat. I usually buy miniature paint sets and chocolate coins in gold wrappers. I also tell them that a leprechaun house has been spotted in the park, so we go on a leprechaun hunt. There is a large old oak tree in the park with a large hole, and when we come to that tree, I make a big deal about saying “this must be the leprechaun house!” One year, the children found a golf ball and a bottle cap in the hole, and they were sure they belonged to the leprechauns. After that I decided to set up some dollhouse furniture in the hole or beside the tree.
Leprechaun Gold Game
Cut shamrock shapes from pieces of green craft foam. Place pieces of “leprechaun gold” (plastic gold coins) on some of the shamrocks, but not all of them. Play some Irish music as the children walk around the circle of shamrocks. When the music stops, everyone should find a shamrock to sit on. If they sit on a shamrock with leprechaun gold, they will keep it for the remainder of the game (ask them to hold their gold in their hand as they play the game). Place more gold coins on some of the shamrocks and start the music again. Continue playing the game as children collect more gold coins. At the end, ask each child to count their coins to see how many they collected. Note: We don’t have a winner when we play this game with little ones, so that there are no hurt feelings.
Shamrock Stamping Game
[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each shamrock, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo dot markers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an “X” over the shamrock if stamps or bingo dot markers are not available.
Leprechaun Grid Game
[Math]
To play a grid game, children roll a game die, identify the numeral and count out that amount of manipulatives. Each manipulative is placed over one picture in the grid. Children play until the whole grid is full. This grid game uses craft foam shamrocks which can be purchased in a package at a craft store.
St. Patrick’s Path Game
[Math]
To assemble this game, print out each of the printables,and glue-stick the two path game pages side by side on the inside of the file folder. Cut out and glue the title and directions on the front of the folder, and cut and glue the tab. Print and cut apart the shamrock cards.
To play the game, children will place their game piece on any spot on the path (it doesn’t matter where because the game goes in a circle and does not have a beginning and ending point). For game pieces, I collected four green math counters from different sets: bear, rabbit, dinosaur, beetle. The players choose the one they want to use. Place the stack of shamrock cards beside the game board. You can use one or two dice. Children take turns rolling the dice and moving that amount of spaces. Anytime a player lands on a shamrock, they collect a shamrock card from the stack. (They must land on the shamrock, not just pass it.) Once all of the shamrock cards are gone, the game has ended, and the players may count their cards. I do not encourage them to compare how many they have with other players because with this age group, win/lose games only cause problems. With other age groups, it may be fine.
Depending on your students’ attention spans, you can adjust the number of shamrock cards used. To make the game longer, use more cards; to make the game shorter, use less.
United Streaming Video
Holiday Facts and Fun: St. Patrick’s Day (Second Edition)
Printables
Directions for printables are given in the Activities section above.
Shamrock Bingo
Grid Game 10 Spaces
Grid Game 20 Spaces
Path Game
Path Game Left
Path Game Right
Path Game
Path Game Cards
