A Rainbow of Learning Fun: St. Patrick’s Day in the Classroom
Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the Classroom
St. Patrick’s Day is one of my FAVORITE holidays. I especially love all of the rainbow themed lessons, science experiments, crafts, snacks, and more! I’ve rounded up some of my favorite things we do in our classroom plus other ideas I’ve seen around the web. I hope these ideas inspire you to make St. Patrick’s Day magical in your own classroom.
Leprechaun Trap Family Project
Leprechaun Traps are something I look forward to every single year. The creativity of the students and their families amaze me! If you teach in a school with high family engagement, you can definitely make this an at home project that families complete together. Give them an assigned day to bring their trap to school.
If parent involvement is not guaranteed where you teach, make this an in-school project. You can divide the children into small groups and give them a variety of materials to work with. Use printables for them brainstorm their trap. They can even be creative and make a Wanted poster for their leprechaun or choose a name for him.
No matter which way you choose to do this project, you’ll love using this idea for St. Patrick’s Day in the classroom.
Look at these creative Leprechaun traps that some of my students brought in one year!
St. Patrick’s Day STEM Stations
Another way to engage children in this fun St. Patrick’s Day activity in the classroom is by setting up STEM Stations around the room. At each station, provide just 2-3 materials for children to use to design a leprechaun trap. You could even use a timer to make this a fun competition!
Or have them create a Leprechaun using basic classroom materials like pom poms, Unifix cubes, legos, and playdoh. These activities are not only fun, but they build the fine motor muscles needed for writing and drawing.
Free Rainbow Activities for St. Patrick’s Day in the Classroom
Another fun activity is to write “Rainbow Spelling Words”. On each arc of the rainbow, students use thin markers to write their spelling words (or sight words) in the appropriate color. This is great repetitive practice that doesn’t feel like rote practice. In fact, the kids went on and on about how much fun it was!
For a fun writing activity, make a rainbow! Used Astrobrights Paper for the strips and print out the clouds on white paper. Grab this and other Rainbow freebies at the bottom of this post!
On St. Patrick’s Day, we also like to taste a rainbow! Have each child bring in a food that’s a color of the rainbow for the whole class to sample. It goes without saying, but always be sure you don’t have food allergies in your classroom before doing this activity! Children can even use a rainbow snack mat to set up their snack before eating it.
Here are few other rainbow activities from around the web.
- Crayon Play Doh by The OT Toolbox
- Marshmallow Rainbow Stamping by Mrs. Plemons’ Kindergarten
- Rainbow Telescope by Smart School House
- Paper Plate Craft by Inner Child Fun
- Rainbow STEM by Little Bins for Little Hands
- Rainbow Twirlers by Crafty Morning
Find more RAINBOW INSPIRATION on this blog post.
And check out these Rainbow themed Preschool math ideas.
Want to get the FREE RAINBOW ACTIVITIES to use for St. Patrick’s Day in the classroom? You can download them by clicking on the picture below.
