The St. Patrick's Day seasonal pages will provide you with resources to help bring the luck of the Irish to you and your students. Ideas within this section include: journal activities, craft ideas, lesson plans, and internet resources.
Your creativity can help other teachers.
Don't forget to include additional resources-documents, web sites, or a photo.
St. Patrick's Day celebrates Saint Patrick, the patron of saints of Ireland.
Growing ShamrocksGrades Any
Use existing shamrocks for the first St. Patrick's Day gardening activity. The second idea shows where to purchase shamrock seeds and along with a little TLC, you will have a garden of luck! Submitted by: Susan Seagraves SSeagraves@email-removed
Leprechaun Hair!Grades Any This fun gardening activity will have your student's "growing" with excitement. Give each child a small cup. I try to get white bathroom cups for this activity. Spray paint the cups green. Using paint pens, draw a leprechaun's face on the cup. Fill the cup with dirt and plant grass seed in the cup. Water well and watch the seeds grow. You will see your leprechaun grow hair!. You need to begin the activity between 2-3 weeks before St. Patrick's Day in order to have enough hair in the cup. Submitted by: Susan Seagraves SSeagraves@email-removed
Leprechaun TrapsGrades 5+
This is a fun activity that incorporates Simple Machines and St. Patrick's Day. I teach fifth grade and one of the topics we cover in science is simple machines. I tie this unit to St. Patrick's day each year by having my students build their own leprechaun traps. They read about leprechauns during reading time and are able to write interesting stories about how their traps are going to catch the leprechaun. Of course, I always specify that they include two different types of simple machines when they build their traps. They bring their traps the day before St. Patrick's day and at the end of the day, they have to explain to their classmates how their trap is going to work.
The traps are all set before we leave. When they return the next morning, they are all surprised to find little green footprints all over the room and gold coins in their traps. The footprints of course were made with some green paint and the side of my hand. The gold coins are really just chocolate wrapped in gold foil. My students and I enjoy this every year. Submitted by: rudiger@email-removed