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St. Patrick’s Day Activities and Teaching Ideas

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Literature Actvities

Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato
Clever Tom and the Leprechaun by Linda Shute
The Leprechaun’s Treasure by Joyce John [out of print]

Make a Venn diagram comparing the book, Clever Tom and the Leprechaun, to The Leprechaun’s Treasure.

Collaborative Book Activities

What Do Leprechauns Wear?

The students color a picture of a leprechaun. Then they write their name on the first line and color words to describe their leprechaun for the remainder of the sentences. Bind all of the pages into a class book.

_________________ is a leprechaun.

He is wearing a ______________ hat,

__________ coat, ______________ pants,

and __________shoes.

How to Catch a Leprechaun

The children write or dictate a story describing how they would use the leprechaun traps they made to catch a leprechaun. Attach it to a picture of a leprechaun trap created by each child.

Individual Student Books

The Leprechaun

Cut apart a picture of a leprechaun and use color words on page to complete a picture on each page. For example, I see a red beard. Students color the beard on the face picture red.

I see a black hat.

I see a red beard.

I see a green shirt.

I see a brown belt.

I see purple shoes.

I see gold.

I see a leprechaun.

Lots O’ Green

(Education Center, March Monthly Reproducibles, Kindergarten, TEC943)

Students illustrate each page.

Green on the shamrocks.

Green on the tree.

Green on the leprechaun.

Green on me!

Other Writing Activities

If I Found the Leprechaun’s Gold

Have children write or dictate an ending to the following story starter:

If I found the leprechaun’s pot of gold, I would…

Limericks

Create a limerick–the final word in the first, second and fifth lines rhyme and the final words in the third and fourth lines must rhyme. This pattern is from Education Center, March Monthly Reproducibles, Kindergarten (TEC943).

There once was a _________ we’ve been told.

Who wears a green _________ in the cold.

While wondering around,

A leprechaun he found!

He bought ___________ and ______________ with his gold.

Leprechaun, Leprechaun

By Jean Warren

Leprechaun, leprechaun,

Come hunt with me.

How many green things can we see?

We found a green (leaf, etc.) under a tree.

We found a green (frog, etc.) next to me.

We found a green (apple, etc.) on the ground.

We found green (caterpillars, etc.) all around.

Journals

We have a vocabulary chart for each month that shows pictures and words related to that month. You can see it in the upper left corner of the photo. The children can use it as a reference for their journal writing. Some of our journal entries can be seen below.

A leprechaun likes a shamrock.

A leprechaun likes me and you.

I like the leprechaun. The leprechaun is green.

Poems and Songs

Leprechaun Pie

(from http://www.abcschoolhouse.com)

Leprechaun pie, Leprechaun pie,

If I don’t get some I think I’m gonna die.

Give away my pot of gold,

Give away the sky,

But don’t give away

My Leprechaun Pie!!!

St. Patrick’s Day Song

(tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

I’m looking for a leprechaun,
Leprechaun, leprechaun.
I’m looking for a leprechaun.
Do you know where he’s gone?

He wears a suit that’s made of green,
Made of green, made of green.
He wears a suit that’s made of green.
Do you know where he’s gone?

He lives by a rainbow and hides his gold,
Hides his gold, hides his gold.
He lives by a rainbow and hides his gold.
Do you know where he’s gone?

If you see a leprechaun,
Leprechaun, leprechaun.
If you see a leprechaun,
Please tell me where he’s gone!

Five Little Leprechauns

By Jean Warren

(Can be a flannel board poem)

One day out walking,
I happened to see
Five little leprechauns
Coming toward me.

They ran to a house.
They ran through the door.
I managed to catch one.
Then there were four.

Four little leprechauns
Climbed up a tree.
I caught another.
Then there were three.

Three little leprechauns
Hid in a shoe.
I caught another
Then there were two.

Two little leprechauns
Started to run.
I caught another.
Then there was one.

One little leprechaun
Ran to his gold.
He grabbed some coins–
Then stepped out bold.

“Give back my friends,
And I’ll give you this gold.”
So I set them all free.
Now my story is told!

If You’re Wearing Green Today

By Elizabeth McKinnon

(Sung to “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)

If you’re wearing green today, dance a jig.
If you’re wearing green today, dance a jig.
If you’re wearing green today,
Dance a jig, then smile and say,
“Have a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”

Additional verses: clap your hands, twirl around, shout “Hurray!”

This Little Leprechaun

(tune of This Old Man) from Copycat, Mar/Apr 94

This little leprechaun, (hold up leprechaun bag puppet)
He hid one. (hold up correct number of fingers)
He hid gold… in the noonday sun. Whew!
With a tap, tap paddy whack, (stomp feet for tap, tap)

Hide a pot of gold.

It’s a secret… can’t be told. (place fingers up to lips)

Continue song, adding a new line for each leprechaun:

Two—He hid gold in his left shoe. OUCH!
Three—He hid gold in the deep blue sea. AHOY!
Four—He hid gold behind the door. BANG!
Five—He hid gold in the old bee hive. BUZZ!
Six—He hid gold and played some tricks. GOTCHA!
Seven—He hid gold beneath the bed. THAT DOESN’T RHYME!
Eight—He hid gold near the garden gate. SQUEAK!
Nine—He hid gold in the nick of time. TICK, TOCK!
Ten—He hid gold in the old pig pen. OINK!

The Leprechauns Are Marching

The leprechauns are marching.
They’re marching down the halls.
They’re marching on the ceilings.
They’re marching on the walls.
They’re marching two by two
And then four by four.
They think they cannot see them.
Look out! Here come some more!

Literacy Skills

Shamrock Game

This is a Shamrock game that is played by 2 children in a center. Each shamrock on the gameboard has a different letter on it. There are 2 sets of picture cards that begin with the letters on the gameboard. (dog for d, sun for s, etc.) Both sets of cards are the same, but they are run on different colors of green cardstock. There is also one Lucky Card in each set that says, “You get 2 turns.” Players put their cards facedown and then take turns drawing from their pile. If they draw the ladder card, they cover the L with it. If the second player then draws his ladder card, he just loses his turn. They keep doing this until all the shamrocks are covered, then they count to see which set has more shamrocks covered.

Pot of Gold Game

This Pot of Gold game encourages children to use clues to guess a word. I choose a word from our word wall and the students take turns guessing the letters. They must ask, in the form of a question, “Is there a letter s in the word?” If there is, I write it in the space and give the “S” (student) pot a gold coin. If not, the “T” (teacher) pot gets the gold coin. We play this game with several words. It was unusual that the teacher won!

Math

Lucky Charms Graph

Students graph Lucky Charms cereal. Lucky Charm graphs can be found here.

Leprechaun Game

Shamrock Number Game

Shamrocks with numerals on one side are placed face down on the floor in a circle. Music is played and the children march around the shamrocks until the music stops. They pick up the shamrock closest to them and read the number. We do this several times. When the game is over, the children make a shamrock trail by putting the shamrocks in numerical sequence.

Snake Measurement

After discussing the legend that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, we rolled clay into snakes. We tried to make snakes the same length as the ones pictured. Then we discussed measurement terms such as longer and shorter. Finally, we put the clay snakes in order from shortest to longest.

Social Studies

Ireland the Island

We learned what an “island” is and located Ireland on a globe and map. Then we made our own island from green clay (or playdough). The island can be mounted on a school lunch tray painted blue or on blue construction paper glued to a paper plate. An Irish flag taped to a toothpick is stuck into the clay island.

Art

TLC Leprechaun

The TLC Leprechaun

Colored Leprechaun

Leprechaun Locker Decoration

The children used watercolors to paint these leprechauns before the face was glued to the back.

Leprechaun Ladder

The “leprechaun ladder” was made by alternately threading a green shamrock cut-out and a piece of green drinking straw on to a long piece of green yarn. It was then hung from the ceiling so the leprechaun could climb on it! ;o)

Shamrock Headband

Cut the center out of a paper plate, but leave one circular area attached so you can glue on the shamrock.

Just for Fun

The Leprechaun kept pulling tricks on our class such as doing this to our bulletin board, messing up our classroom while we were at the bathroom (thanks to the secretary), and flicking our lights on and off (thanks to the principal or custodian who do this from the switch box.)

We had family homework of making a Leprechaun Trap. We set the traps and went on a Leprechaun Hunt, following green footprint clues indoors and outside. We never caught him, but he left us a note that he had to go back over the rainbow. He left us a green treat to eat and some gold candy coins, too.

While on our Leprechaun Hunt, we found the leprechaun’s shoes! We thought he’d lost them while he was climbing on the fence. (One of the teachers spray painted a pair of baby shoes green.)

Here are some of the gold (chocolate) coins that were scattered on the windowsill, close to a small black pot. I usually cut a jagged piece of green felt and have a parent put it near the window–this is a piece of the leprechaun’s pants that tore as he was going out our window, making a quick escape.