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March is coming which means spring will soon fill the air. This also means it’s time to get busy planning some fun St. Patrick’s Day activities and ideas for your classroom.
I always feel that March is such a drastic difference from February. Last month, the classroom was filled with Valentine’s Day activities, the 100th Day of School, President’s Day, Groundhog Day, and I am sure I am missing some other event! However, March is the month for some sneaky leprechaun fun and kids are all for it!
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This is the time to get silly in your classroom! I definitely like to keep my classroom tidy, but this is the month that I am okay with messes especially since I am the one making them! It is so fun to watch your students reactions when they come to the classroom in the morning, after specials, after lunch, or recess and see chairs flipped upside down, blocks spilled all over the room, or something just out of place from the leprechaun. Students truly believe this mischievous leprechaun is real and it makes it even more exciting to play along with it!
If you like to add some St. Patrick’s Day fun to your classroom during March, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite activities and ideas that I like to do in hopes to make your planning for next month a bit easier! I also hope these ideas give you more time for yourself, your family, and did I mention for YOU??
These books are great for read-alouds. This is the time of day where students get exposed to so many different types of stories, vocabulary, and is one of the most calming times of day for the entire class.
After reading these stories to the class, I love adding them to the classroom library for students to go back to look more closely at the pictures and often times I hear them retelling the story to themselves or to a friend.
You know how much I adore thematic units and St. Patrick’s Day is a unit that I have loved including to the year! All of my units include TONS of hands-on math and literacy activities that are focused on a specific theme.
Year after year I have noticed that thematic units keep students engaged, increases their interest, helps them understand connections, creates real-world context, builds vocabulary, allows students to engage in complex thinking, and the list just keeps going!
Let’s take a look at some of the activities included in my St. Patrick’s Day Unit.
This leprechaun activity really gets students thinking outside of the box. After reading some St. Patrick’s Day stories or leprechaun stories, I like to start discussing with my students what they have noticed from the stories that leprechauns can do, what they have, and what they are.
Making an anchor chart to show what you have discussed about leprechauns is great for students to see. They may not know how to spell or read everything on the anchor chart, but discussing the words often helps them remember what most of it says.
From here, you can practice creating sentences together as a class through interactive writing or modeling. I like to point to the anchor chart to show how I come up with a sentence. For example, ‘Leprechauns are small’. I will point to the word ‘leprechauns’ at the top, then point to the word ‘are’, and last the word ‘small’. Then I model that sentence. When students see how I model this, they are often eager to try a sentence on their own!
Once students get some practice, they get to create their own sentences about leprechauns. They can write a sentence or more about each category in their own leprechaun informational flip book.
Let’s be real… anything that involves food is always exciting! This graph and data activity steps up the engagement level by adding Skittles and turning those Skittles into a rainbow!
Each student gets a mini pack of Skittles and sorts the colors they get onto a sorting mat. It is fun giving each student their own mini pack of Skittles because each pack is different which makes all of the results different.
Once the Skittles are sorted, students use the sorting mat to help them fill in a graph and data worksheet to show how many of each color Skittle they have.
Your students will love the idea of a mischievous leprechaun during this unit. When they get to do a hands-on activity with a leprechaun you will see lots of smiles and hears lots of laughs!
For this hands-on subtraction activity, I painted some large lima beans gold. The result is pretty fantastic! I pretend these are pieces of gold that the leprechaun is trying to take.
Each student gets a subtraction mat, some gold beans, and a leprechaun on a cup. They look at the subtraction equation and place the correct number of gold on the first pot. Then, they look at the subtraction equation to see how many are being taken away. They place that many gold beans in the cup to make it look like the leprechaun is taking the gold. However many gold beans are left on the first pot is the answer to the subtraction equation.
Lots of hands-on subtraction practice!
At the beginning of the unit, I give students a mini reader about a Leprechaun looking for his lost pot of gold. The leprechaun asks many different animals where his pot of gold is to help him find it.
Each day we do a different activity with this mini reader. We start with me reading the mini reader to the whole class. Then, students read along with me following the words with their fingers. By the end of the week, most students are able to read this mini reader independently. This is such a confidence boost and a proud teacher moment!
A skill that we focus on a lot during this time of year is story problems. This St. Patrick’s Day math activity is full of different hands-on addition story problems.
We read the addition story problem together. This is a great time to practice finding key details in the story. Then, students get to use the pictures at the bottom of each page to act out the addition story problems. Once they cut and glue the pictures in the correct place, students determine and write an addition equation to go with the stories.
There are 4 different addition story problems included as well as a subtraction story problems book!
We all know how imaginative students are. I absolutely LOVE this leprechaun story activity because students really get to showcase their imagination!
Students get to create their very own story about a leprechaun who lost their pot of gold. They get to brainstorm and organize ideas for their story by filling in a story organizer. This allows them to see the entire story that they are going to write on one page and helps them tremendously when it comes to writing the story.
Then, students get to start working on writing their leprechaun story using their story organizer for guidance as they write.
In the end, they get to create a cover that includes painting a rainbow with Q-tips and a fun leprechaun craft.
This activity is worked on throughout the week. I love ending the St. Patrick’s Day Unit by having my students share their stories with each other. Some students like to read their story to the class and others like to share with a friend. You will see so much pride and confidence coming from your students at the end of this week!
This St. Patrick’s Day activity is perfect to add to your centers or for a fun end of the week activity. Students get to play a sight word game with a small group.
Each player gets their own game mat which is a pot. There are gold coins with different sight words placed in a bag. One player at a time takes out a coin, reads the sight word, and places it on their pot. If they are unable to read the word, they put it back in the bag and it is the next player’s turn.
Players continue to choose a coin from the bag. Watch out for the sneaky leprechaun! If a player pulls out a leprechaun, they have to put ALL of the coins that were on their pot back into the bag. The player with the most coins on their pot in the end wins!
I can never get tired of crafts! Especially when they include learning. This leprechaun craft has students practicing addition and subtraction equations.
Students make a leprechaun craft. Then, they choose a number to put on a large coin. Once they choose a number, they have to find an addition and subtraction equation that equals that number that they chose and write it on smaller coins to add to the craft.
We are still continuing to combine addition and subtraction together. I always like to find different ways to keep students engaged when we are working on a skill that is practiced a lot.
This math activity has students placing the addition or subtraction equation on top of the correct answer. When students lift up the pot with the equation, they see the answer underneath on the gold coin!
If you are looking for some new St. Patrick’s Day activities and ideas for your classroom, this St. Patrick’s Day Unit will give you lots of fun and hands-on learning. There are still so many more math and literacy activities included that were not shown above.
You will find 15 different activities in this St. Patrick’s Day Unit.
The skills in these St. Patrick’s Day activities include:
Do you use printables in your classroom for morning work, independent work, small groups, centers, early finishers, or homework? If you said yes to any of these then these March printables may help make your March planning a bit easier!
I like adding engaging and interactive printables throughout the month. Here is a look at some of my favorite March printables.
What is so great about these March worksheets is that they can be used in so many ways and you can choose to use them in the way that works best for your classroom.
You can get a closer look at these math and literacy March Printables by clicking the buttons below:
Of course, I will be adding lots of St. Patrick’s Day activities to my centers! My class never gets tired of centers and especially not with these sneaky leprechauns!
You can read all about my 36 math and literacy centers for March HERE.
Do you use digital activities in your classroom? There are so many ways they can be included in your day! You can add them to your centers rotations, on your smart board, during morning meeting, on tablets, in small groups, or use them for some at home practice.
I enjoy using them during my centers rotations and I don’t think students can get to the tablets or computers fast enough! These interactive March digital activities include 27 math and literacy centers that truly feel like games for students.
Adding digital activities to your week is such a great way to have students review or practice different math and literacy skills in a fun and engaging way.
There are 27 digital math and literacy skills included that focus on:
What are some of your favorite St. Patrick’s Day activities for kindergarten that you like to do in your classroom? I would love to hear! Leave me a comment below and share with me!
Be sure to save these St. Patrick’s Day activities for kindergarten to your favorite Pinterest board so that you can come back any time for engaging activities and ideas that you can add to your classroom or home this March!
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
