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When the calendar turns to March, the green comes out in my classroom! Where I live and teach spring break does not come around until April. That means that March can feel like a very, very long month! Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in a variety of ways helps to get the kids engaged during March and help us get even more excited for the arrival of spring!
I love using holidays and seasons to motivate and engage students. I especially love offering students a fun twist on the typical holiday activities that they may have already experienced by the time they get to my upper elementary classroom.
When it comes to celebrating St. Patrick's Day we focus on traditions, rainbow and gold, our favorite books, and those little leprechauns all while completing standards-aligned activities!
Here are my favorite activities and topics related to St. Patrick's Day to help you keep upper elementary students engaged and learning during the St. Patrick's Day season.
1. Use Nonfiction St. Patrick's Day Topics
When you think of St. Patrick's Day, gold might be the first thing that comes to your mind! What better nonfiction topic to explore than gold! My students are always fascinated when we learn about how gold is made and immediately want to go out and dig for buried treasure!
How to learn about gold with students:
- Start with a KWL
- Read a nonfiction article
- Watch this informative video: How is Gold Made? Video {5 minutes}
- Wrap up by writing in our journals about what we do if we found a jar of gold, just like the couple that was discussed in the video
Gold is not the only nonfiction topic worthy of studying during March and for St. Patrick's Day! We also love talking about the science of how rainbows are formed, and your students will love it, too!
How to learn about rainbow science with students:
- Start with a KWL
- Read a nonfiction article
- Watch these two amazing science videos: Scishow: How to Make a Rainbow {3 minutes} and How is a Rainbow Made? {6 minutes}
- Complete the rainbow experiment in the Scishow video {directions are in the video so simple and fun!}
- Wrap up by creating watercolor rainbow paintings to hang around the classroom
2. Study Traditions of St. Patrick's Day
Since March is such a long month, it makes it the perfect time to welcome families into the classroom to share their family traditions! We connect learning about each student's traditions to St. Patrick's Day by comparing and contrasting our own family traditions to those celebrated by the Irish for St. Patrick's Day! The children love learning more about each other, and families love participating by joining our class and sending in a short write-up about their own family traditions.
Some Irish traditions that we discuss include:
- Leprechauns
- Wearing Green
- Blarney Stone
- Shamrocks
3. Use Procedural Writing AND Limerick Writing
There is no better writing project to complete during the month of March than a procedural writing project all about How to Catch a Leprechaun!
What I love about writing how-to pieces about catching leprechauns is how creative the project is! After students write their procedural writing piece about how to catch a leprechaun they can:
- Create step by step illustration of how they will catch their leprechaun
- Create the trap that they wrote about in their writing with common household/classroom items
- Create an illustration of the leprechaun caught in their trap {these make the cutest bulletin board display}
Grab step by step directions to successfully teach procedural writing HERE.
Don't have time to devote to this full writing project, try writing limericks instead! They are a lot of fun to write and share in class, too!
4. Read a St. Patrick's Day Picture Book
What is a holiday without some amazing read-aloud books to hook the kids? My favorite read-aloud that aligns with our reading curriculum is The Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards.
I especially love reading this book because of the positive message it sends and how perfectly it aligns with lessons on finding the theme in literature with upper elementary students. With one reading of this book we can cover these skills:
- asking questions as you read
- character traits
- how characters change
- themes found in the literature
- life lessons we can apply to our own lives
Other favorite picture book read-alouds for St. Patrick's Day include:
- Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato: An Irish Folktale by Tomie dePaola
- How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace
- Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman
- Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk: An Irish Tale by Gerald McDermott
- The Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards
5. St. Patrick's Day Community Building - I am Lucky Writing
There is nothing more important to me than building classroom community and then strengthening it all year long! One of my favorite activities to do with students each month is writing positive letters about each student. During the month of March, we write letters to our classmates focusing on how lucky we are to be friends!
It is easy to do! Here is how:
- Have each student put their name on a piece of paper and collect them in a basket.
- One by one, students select a name from the basket, making sure that they did not select their own name.
- Once all names have been drawn, have students write a letter to tell their friend how "lucky" they are to know them and be their friend and classmate.
- Have students use a plain piece of paper and decorate or use a shamrock template like the one in this set.
6. St. Patrick's Day Bulletin Board - We are Lucky Readers!
I love celebrating my students as readers every day, but especially in March!
During March I create a "Lucky Little Readers" bulletin board and it is my favorite of the year! The students fill out a book reflection card about themselves as readers and share them with the class. The kids love reading each other's book recommendations once they are all read and proudly displayed!
Create your own "Lucky Little Readers" bulletin board with the bulletin board letters and student reflection page (see above) included in this FREE download!
When it comes to engaging students, holidays and seasons are the way to go! By using standards-aligned and high-interest activities, your students will not only be completing important tasks, but they will have fun while learning, too!
These St. Patrick's Day ideas will help you engage YOUR students and keep engagement high all March long!
You will also love to read:
Check out my favorite St. Patrick's Day activities HERE.
Like these St. Patrick's Day NO Prep activities to just add to your lesson plans!
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