Having lived there for over 5 years, Ireland is particularly close to my heart and with Irish family and connections the national celebration of St Patrick's Day is a special day for my family. Over the years, St Patrick's Day has become bigger and bolder than ever with Irish and non-Irish alike celebrating all over the world.
As a celebration of diversity and immigration, St Patrick's Day is more important than ever before and therefore an essential celebration for your classroom.
Listed below are 5 ways I have integrated the St Patrick's Day celebration into my classroom. If you can think of any more add them below in the comments section.
Any good geography unit incorporates aspects of cultural and geographic elements. In fact, geography is no longer just the study of maps but more an exploration of places, spaces and their use by the people who live there.
Exploring Ireland within your geography lesson is an easy way to stay on track with your geography study, whilst still exploring a traditional celebration within your own community.
Who was St Patrick? Why is he the Patron Saint of Ireland and why do we celebrate his death? The St Patrick's Day Activity Pack will help your students answer these questions and more. In addition, they can explore the history concepts of a timeline of St Patrick's Day, writing activities, vocabulary (word wall), research sheets and fun activities such as the craft and word search activities. This little pack is bursting with goodies and aligns to the Australian curriculum for History and Geography (HASS) for Foundation - Year 3.
3. Introduce themed St Patrick's Day activities into literacy centres and maths rotations.
The St Patrick's Day Literacy Pack and the St Patrick's Day Maths Pack are jam packed with fun activities for your literacy or maths rotations. Each pack contains 10 worksheets with activities such as ordinal numbers, roll and colour, make a sentence and many more activities suitable for Kindy/Foundation and Year 1 students. Themed packs help to keep your centres fun and fresh with something new for everybody. (Available in both UK and US spelling variations)
4. Play some themed games and do some St Patrick's Day craft.
A celebration is supposed to be fun and it is possible to learn while having fun isn't it? I've used these little St Patrick's Day Bingo cards to bring some exploration of cultural symbols for St Patrick's Day into the classroom. Bingo is also a great way to practice some vocabulary and listening work. At only $1 this pack is a great find!
These St Patrick's Day Colouring Pages are a fun activity that are fantastic for fast finishers with lots of cultural symbols to select from.
Everybody loves a freebie and these super cute St Patrick's Day Printable Hats are so easy to make. I made these for my students and they wouldn't take them off! They come colour and black and white so you students can print and craft their own hats for your very own St Patrick's Day celebration in the classroom!
5. Read a St Patrick's Day story.
There are so many St Patrick's Day themed picture books to select from I simply couldn't select one so listed below you will find my favourites. Click each picture to see more details of where they are available.
