St. Patrick's Day

Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about St. Patrick’s Day.

Find more St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Pre-K

Books

How to Catch a Leprechaun, by Adam Wallace
Jack and the Leprechaun, by Ivan Robertson
Pout-Pout Fish: Lucky Leprechaun, by Deborah Diesen
Pete the Cat: Great Leprechaun Chase, by James Dean

St. Patrick’s Fine Motor Activities

Play Dough

Collect lids from bottles to use as cutters for the children to cut gold coins out of play dough. You can buy small black plastic kettles at Halloween or St. Patrick’s to use as the leprechauns’ pot of gold. Children can make the gold coins and place them in the kettles.

St. Patrick’s Math Play Dough Mat

Use these St. Patrick’s math play dough mats to practice counting and fine motor skills.

St. Patrick's Leprechaun Play Dough Mats

St. Patrick’s Art Activities

Parade Hats

We make the hat using a top hat style shape for the front (cut out of black paper), with a black band around the back. Children glue a yellow paper buckle and green shamrock to the front.

Parade Shakers

I’ve made shakers two different ways. To make egg shakers, I buy white plastic Easter eggs. Children scoop rice into it, close it, and decorate it with St. Patrick’s Day stickers. To make paper plate shakers, have children decorate the back side of a paper plate with green crayons and Shamrock cut-outs or stickers. Children scoop a handful of dry beans on the undecorated side of the plate. Fold the plate over to a semi-circle shape and tape the edge with green masking tape. Have children tape crepe paper streamers to the shaker.

Parade Flags

The flags are made of half of a piece of kelly green felt, hot-glued to a small dowel rod. I bought a package of dowel rods about 12 inches long at a craft store. The children decorate the flag with a light green felt shamrock and gold glitter.

St. Patrick’s Day Necklace

Have the children string about 10 green and white pony beads onto a piece of thin green ribbon (tie one bead on one end so the beads won’t fall off). Punch a hole in a craft foam shamrock, and have each child string a shamrock into the middle, then string 10 more pony beads on the other side of the shamrock. Tie the ends together and wear as a necklace.

Shamrock Fabric Collage

I trace an outline of a shamrock on green paper for each child with a black Sharpie. Children cut out the shamrock and glue on small squares of green cloth (stripes, plaids, dots, ginghams, calicos, etc.).

St. Patrick’s Literacy Activities

Journal Pages

On these journal pages, children draw a picture and teachers write their dictation at the bottom of the paper. Children can also write their own letters or words, according to their ability.

Children think of what they would wish for if they caught a leprechaun and could have one wish on one page. On another, they tell what they would do if they found a pot of gold. These March Journals for Pre-K can be purchased here.

Story Retelling

This is an activity that goes with any theme. Choose a book that goes with the theme, and have the children retell the story.
Read the blog post here for details: story retelling

St. Patrick’s Bingo Stamping Game

Use this bingo stamping game to practice letter or numeral recognition. Print out the bingo page, write the letters or numbers you want your students to practice, and make copies. Get the printable here: St. Patrick’s Bingo Game here.

St. Patrick’s Day Roll and Write Game

Children love this game to practice writing skills! Read about and print the St. Patrick’s Day Roll & Write Game here.

St. Patrick’s Math Activities

St. Patrick’s Roll and Cover Game

This roll and cover game can be used to practice counting and numeral recognition. Read about and print it here: Roll and Cover Games

St. Patrick’s Grid Game

This printable game is used to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence. Read about and print here: Grid Games

Sorting Shamrocks by Size

These are craft foam shamrocks purchased in a package from a craft store. These shamrocks come in 3 different sizes and can be sorted by size: small, medium, large.

Shamrock Counting

I use a shamrock shaped Martha Stewart craft puncher to cut out the pieces from construction paper. Print out the numeral sheets. Have children count out the correct amount of paper cutouts to glue onto the numeral. Print the Large Numeral Sheets here.

Ten Frame Game

Practice counting with this Ten Frame Game. Children will count the number of coins in the picture and then count out manipulatives to place in the ten frame. Purchase this St. Patrick Ten Frame Game here.

St. Patrick’s Science Activities

Magic Leprechaun Drink

Mix a package of lemonade, add yellow food coloring to make the color brighter. Add a drop of blue food coloring to each child’s clear cup, then pour in the lemonade. It will magically turn green! In the past, we’ve had doughnuts with green icing which were really neat!

More St. Patrick’s Activities

St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Every year our school has a St. Patrick’s Day parade, and our class makes noisemakers, flags, and hats. We also wear green leis or necklaces. Most of the children in the school spray their hair green, and the girls wear green nail polish.

Leprechaun Hunt

We read several stories about leprechauns. During the children’s nap time, leprechauns leave a note to the children with a green glitter trail leading them to a special treat. I usually buy miniature paint sets and chocolate coins in gold wrappers. I also tell them that a leprechaun house has been spotted in the park, so we go on a leprechaun hunt. There is a large old oak tree in the park with a large hole, and when we come to that tree, I make a big deal about saying “this must be the leprechaun house!” One year, the children found a golf ball and a bottle cap in the hole, and they were sure they belonged to the leprechauns. After that I decided to set up some dollhouse furniture in the hole or beside the tree.

Leprechaun Gold Game

Cut shamrock shapes from pieces of green craft foam. Place pieces of “leprechaun gold” (plastic gold coins) on some of the shamrocks, but not all of them. Play some Irish music as the children walk around the circle of shamrocks. When the music stops, everyone should find a shamrock to sit on. If they sit on a shamrock with leprechaun gold, they will keep it for the remainder of the game (ask them to hold their gold in their hand as they play the game). Place more gold coins on some of the shamrocks and start the music again. Continue playing the game as children collect more gold coins. At the end, ask each child to count their coins to see how many they collected. Note: We don’t have a winner when we play this game with little ones, so that there are no hurt feelings.