The Story Behind St. Patrick’s Day
When you start to see people decked in green clothing and shamrocks, you can be certain that St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner. St. Patrick’s Day occurs every year on March 17th. This Irish-centered holiday is celebrated all around the world, in honor of this historical symbol of Irish traditions. St. Patrick was born in Scotland in AD 387. His birth name was Maewyn Succat. As a teenager, he was captured and enslaved in Ireland, where he learned the customs and language of his Druid captors. His status as a saint was never actually made official, but his prestige as a great teacher of theology earned him the distinction.
St. Patrick’s Day offers teachers the opportunity to mix learning with fun.
3 Fun Activities for the Classroom
Lucky Charms Graphing: A great way to involve food,
fun, and math skills.
- Give each student a bowl of Lucky Charms Cereal and graph paper.
- Have students sort each of the different pieces by shape and then graph how many individual pieces are in each group.
- Have students create a colored bar graph to show the volume of each group.
- Let students compare their results with other students.
Leprechaun Library: Have St. Patrick’s Day themed books available to students to read throughout the day.
Here’s a few book ideas thanks to Teach Hub:
- The Gold at the End of the Rainbow written by Wolfram Hanel
- Leprechauns Gold written by Teresa Bateman
- The Story of Saint Patrick’s Day by Patricia A. Pingry
- The Leprechaun’s Gold by Henry Cole
- That’s What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting
Leprechaun Shenanigans:
- Decorate your classroom as though a Leprechaun has come to visit your students while they were away.
- Leave glitter tracks where the leprechauns have moved through the classroom.
- Leprechauns are known to be a little mischievous and would do anything to find and keep their pots of gold. Give students the opportunity to create leprechaun traps out of basic craft supplies – maybe using Popsicle sticks and empty tissue boxes. This pushes students to get creative in their thinking of how they would catch them.
For more fun St. Patrick’s Day ideas click on the following link: Free Resources for Teaching About St. Patrick’s Day
Featured Image: InMenlo • Additional Image: Savvy Spending
