St. Patrick’s Day. The day everyone questions if what they are wearing is somewhat a shade of green. While St. Patrick’s Day obviously originated in Ireland, it’s pretty safe to say that it is celebrated in other countries as well. I mean, look at the Chicago River on the morning of the holiday!
It can be a fun holiday to celebrate in the classroom, and bonus, there are plenty of educational activities that can be done to celebrate! Keep reading for ideas on how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the classroom!
Ideas for St. Patrick’s Day Activities
One of my favorite activities to do even as a kid was to graph Lucky charms. Simply get a box of Lucky Charms and place students in small groups and have them graph how many of a certain shape they have in their pile. Bonus points if you can get through that lesson without anybody (this includes you, you stressed teacher) eating half the box! No shame if you do! Also, there are sometimes special editions of JUST the marshmallows so you don’t have to pick out the yucky brown things.
This would be also a great time to have students actually learn about the meaning behind St. Patrick’s Day and why certain symbols such as clovers are prevalent during the holiday. With Celtic Comprehension, students will read a short passage about how St. Patrick’s Day started and then answer the comprehension questions.
If you are wanting to differentiate a bit, this would be a great time to review context clues or inferences.
Another fun activity I remember doing in my old elementary classroom was writing a detailed how-to piece of writing that explains how to catch a leprechaun. Because apparently if you catch a leprechaun wishes come true or something! Still waiting on that Lamborghini though…
Let’s face it, teaching regrouping isn’t always fun. However, with enough practice your students will be regrouping wizards in no time! This is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the classroom in a fun and educational way!
Inexpensive Ideas for St. Patrick’s Day
Another cheap thing you can do ironically comes in the form of gold. Well, actually not real gold but you get my drift. Head on over to the dollar store and grab a ton of those gold plastic coins, or if you are feeling brave, the chocolate ones! Students can use those for a variety of activities such as making a bridge for STEM practice.
This would also be a great way to start practicing arrays for multiplication! Students can learn what columns, rows, and repeated addition are. They might be surprised to learn that by understanding arrays, they are actually learning the basics of multiplication!
However, if you want something a bit more “done for you” St. Patrick’s skip counting is also an option! Students will practice skip counting by 2’2, 5’s, and 10’s.
Another thing that I like to include in all of my units are codes! These are a fun way for students to practice pretty much any concept! For example, with Clover Code students practice two-digit addition and then they solve the riddle.
Paddy’s Place Value is pretty similar, but for this activity, students find the digits value and then solve the code. Riddle codes are a great way to have students practicing common math concepts in second grade while also incorporating some holiday fun!
If you are looking for even more St. Patrick’s Day goodies, check out my Digital and Printable St. Patrick’s Day unit!
For more spring ideas and resources check out my post How to Survive the Spring Season As A Teacher.
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