St. Patrick's Day Classroom Ideas

Teaching young children can be really fun, especially because they still believe in magic and make-believe. St. Patrick's day is a particularly fun time in the classroom because there are so many ways to incorporate it into the school day. Every year my classroom is visited by a pesky leprechaun named Seamus. Every year he does the same tricks! He writes us messages, tricks us into eating something gross, turns our toilet water green, and destroys out classroom! But sometimes that pesky leprechaun brings us a pot of gold. There is so much fun to be had leading up to St. Patrick's day! Take a look at some of the fun St. Patrick's day activities you can do in your classroom.

Image courtesy of debspoons / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About a week or two before St. Patrick's day, my classroom is always visited by Seamus the leprechaun. During morning circle my students always discover a mysterious letter written on our morning message chart paper. Initially Seamus introduces himself and tells us that he slid down a rainbow and landed at our school. He tells us that he's going to be staying in our classroom for a while and watch student behavior. This activity is really great because it gives the students an opportunity to ask questions and write a response to Seamus' letters. It gives them practice writing letters and words, and also helps them learn high frequency words. My students always ask Seamus to bring them some gold, but he's pretty protective of his pot of gold.

Occassionally, Seamus the leprechaun surprises the class with special St. Patrick's day treats. This usually happens if the whole class keeps their behavior on green. Green is Seamus' favorite color and he loves when students keep their names in that color. He also gives individual students treats if he catches them doing something good. Some treat ideas are Hershey Kisses, Skittles, shamrock stickers, and shamrock tattoos. But sometimes Seamus is tricky. One year he brought what looked like a pot of chocolate. After passing the chocolate out to each student, we read Seamus' message and realized that he had left us leprechaun poop! But I'll tell you, that leprechaun poop tasted a lot like chocolate covered raisins!

Leprechauns are known to be pranksters and our classroom leprechaun is no exeption. When St. Patrick's day approaches, some crazy things happen in our classroom. One St. Patrick's day morning, my students arrived to class and discovered that all of the water in the toilet was green! Seamus also put all of the students' behavior clips on red! Boy did that rile up the class! My students were very upset with Seamus. He also tipped over our bookshelf and knocked over our chairs! Seamus is a naughty leprechaun, but he sure is fun to have around!

Seamus always puts some St. Patrick's day books in our classroom library. He likes to hide in the corner during read aloud and listen to stories. Sometimes he falls asleep during story time and the class listens to hear if he is snoring. The students always try to peak around the room to catch him, but they haven't been able to yet. Sometimes we even build leprechaun traps to catch Seamus. He's a pretty smart guy and has escaped all of our attempts to catch him.

Some of Seamus' favorite St. Patrick's day books are listed below.

By the time St. Patrick's day arrives, my students are really ready for their pot of gold. After a week or two of tricks and jokes, Seamus usually thanks us for our hospitality by giving us a pot of chocolate gold, Hershey Kisses, and leprechaun sparkles and decorations. It's a bittersweet day because although the students love their goodies and St. Patrick's day decorations, they are sad to hear that Seamus is traveling back to Ireland.

Try some of these fun activities in your classroom. I promise, fun will be had by all!