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St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Big Kids

March 5, 2016 by Ashleigh | 16 Comments

St. Patrick's Day Activities for Big Kids

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day activities for upper elementary students, because we all know they want to have fun too. St. Patrick’s Day was always a holiday that wasn’t too exciting for me, so when I first started teaching it never occurred to me that it might be fun for students. Not to mention that March Madness had begun for me. I’m usually able to deal with the pressures of state testing fairly well….until March. That’s when all my doubts and insecurities creep in, and I start really feeling the extra stress and pressure of our state test.

During the month of March, I’m always racing to teach as much as I can in as short of amount of time as possible, despite the fact that I know it’s not best teaching practices. My first several years teaching, I never dreamed of taking time to do something extra for St. Patrick’s Day, but I couldn’t help but notice all the excitement in our K-2 students. I didn’t want to be the teacher where the fun ended, so I tried to think of ways to incorporate our standards into meaningful activities with a St. Patrick’s Day theme.

I’ve always loved the idea of leprechaun traps, because that’s a seriously fun project, but I had a hard time finding  a way to tie it into my standards. I realized that leprechaun homes would suit my standards better. This allowed me to tie in our heat unit with insulators and conductors.

St. Patrick’s Day Activities: Leprechaun Homes

In this project (which you can download for free here), students design a leprechaun home that must protect leprechauns from the elements, as well as provide insulation from the heat and cold. This can be completed as a St. Patrick’s Day STEM project and the homes can be constructed at school or at home. I’ve included teacher and student directions, as well as a few graphic organizers to guide students through the process.

I explained this activity to my students and told them that we would not have time to build the homes at school, so their construction would be at home. I asked who was interested, and EVERY student raised their hand! They were bubbling over with excitement and could not wait to get started! I have listened to my students plan their projects all week! I had three students bring in their leprechaun homes the day after I sent home directions, and I’ll add more pictures as they get turned in.

This is also a great time to squeeze in a little liquid volume lessons through a density experiment. Anything that involves bright colors and liquids is sure to excited students! You’ll need four different types of liquids. I used corn syrup, rubbing alcohol, water, and vegetable oil.

 

Have students pour the liquids into small cups. Add food coloring to the liquids, so that the colors stand out. Students should pour about an inch of corn syrup into a clear cylinder. Then, they should use a dropper to add about an inch of water. After the water, students should repeat the same step with the vegetable oil and then alcohol. To tie in liquid volume, rather than having students add an inch at a time, use a graduated cylinder and give students the exact milliliter to pour to.

 

The final outcome looks pretty cool, and it’s a great way to explain density!

 

If you’re looking for more traditional printables, I do have a short St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Big Kids pack. It contains a recording sheet for the science experiment (although it’s not a necessity).

 

There is a reading comprehension worksheet with a St. Patrick’s Day themed reading passage, as well as a cardinal directions worksheet.

 

I absolutely LOVE Leprechaun Village, because it ties in perfectly to my area and perimeter unit! We’re just finishing up, so this offers the just right level of rigor and engagement. Plus, it’s pretty fun too! In the activity, students build Leprechaun Village using perimeter and area requirements.

 

Two additional activities, are Spin a Story and Spin a Story Problem. In Spin a Story, students write a story with Lucky the leprechaun as the main character. They use the included spinner to spin a character trait of Lucky and spin for the setting of the story. In spin a word problem, students spin an operation, number, and setting and write a word problem using those three elements.

 

There are several other fun activities in packet, so I feel pretty confident that I’ll be able to make the week of St. Patrick’s Day fun while still moving forward with our standards and learning!

St. Patrick's Day activities for big kids text with example activity sheets.

 

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Comments

  1. Nancy says

    March 10, 2017 at 1:55 PM

    Hello,

    Can I get a copy of these activities (on PDF or word)? These look great 🙂

    Thanks in advance,

    Reply
  2. Zarina says

    March 12, 2017 at 3:03 PM

    Looks good, but isn’t there a mistake with the operation you chose?

    Reply
  3. C. Ernstes says

    March 17, 2017 at 8:18 AM

    How do I get the leprechaun village?

    Reply
  4. Jeanisha says

    April 11, 2017 at 10:04 AM

    I would like to get a copy of the area and perimeter activity.How can I get it?

    Reply
  5. Katie says

    April 13, 2017 at 3:23 PM

    I would love a copy of these activities! Are you willing to share? 🙂

    Reply
  6. Melissa Dantro says

    February 22, 2018 at 10:03 PM

    I love these math ideas. Where can I get copies of these?
    Thanks,
    Melissa

    Reply
    • Ashleigh says

      February 23, 2018 at 9:42 AM

      There should be links throughout the post! Let me know if you don’t see them.

      Reply
      • Cheryl says

        March 8, 2018 at 11:40 PM

        I would love to get the link to the village activity! Thanks

        Reply
        • Ashleigh says

          March 10, 2018 at 9:54 PM

          It’s in the St. Patrick’s Day for Big Kids link.

          Reply
      • Dawn says

        March 10, 2018 at 8:49 AM

        I can’t find any links to ur village activity.

        Reply
        • Ashleigh says

          March 10, 2018 at 9:52 PM

          It’s in the St. Patrick’s Day for Big Kids link.

          Reply
          • Ashleigh says

            March 10, 2018 at 9:53 PM

            It’s in the St. Patrick’s Day for Big Kids link.

  7. Denise says

    February 24, 2018 at 1:17 PM

    I too would like to get a copy of your free activities (especially your Leprechaun Village). I do not see links throughout the post. Where can I get a copy?

    Reply
  8. Tara says

    March 6, 2018 at 2:00 PM

    Hello,

    All of these look great! I’m just wondering how we get copies?

    Reply
    • Ashleigh says

      March 10, 2018 at 9:55 PM

      You can find various links within the post!

      Reply
  9. Leslie says

    July 18, 2018 at 10:17 AM

    I see that all of you are having trouble finding her links and which activities go with which. The Leprechaun Home activity is free and the link is under the graphic for the activity – click on the work “here”. The Rainbow Science activity is explained right here and the rest are in a package from TpT for $3.50 found in a link under the rainbow jar called “St. Patrick’s Day for Big Kids” pack. Hope this helps. Ashleigh – these activities are great, so you may want to consider redesigning the links to make them more accessible to your activity pages.

    Reply

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