It's March which means it's time to start thinking about some leprechaun fun! St. Patrick's Day in the classroom can be an all day event while still sticking to academic concepts: STEM, math, reading, writing, you name it! Our team has put together another Lucky Little Party Plan for St. Patrick's Day including some brand new activities, and we know you are going to love it!

Lucky Little Party Plan

Looking at the party plan below, you will see it is full of centers, crafts, snack & decor ideas, read aloud suggestions and more. A big part of St. Patrick's Day is the STEM activity: making a Leprechaun trap, and that is what a majority of this post will focus on. However, we will still take a walk through each section of the party plan!

Jump to:

I) Suggested Materials

II) Decor Ideas

III) Snack Ideas

IV) Centers & Crafts

V) Read Alouds

VI) Party Games

VII) STEM

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I) Suggested Materials

The following are suggested letters and resources to print out ahead of St. Patrick's Day. If you choose to do Leprechaun traps or the snacks, these letters will need to be sent home at least a week prior to the special day.

Leprechaun Trap Letter

What better way to bring in STEM skills than with engineering a leprechaun trap? The actual process of this project is laid out later in this post. Grab the Leprechaun Trap Letter in the All Access Membership Library and get started today!

Snack Supply Letter

Snacks with a purpose are what Lucky Cereal Graphing and copycat shamrock shakes are about. Graphing the marshmallows works with graphing and bonus, students get a little treat when they have finished. The shamrock shakes can be used to teach liquid measurement!

Download the snack supply request letter below, and grab an easy DIY shamrock shake recipe from Kid Friendly Things to Do.

Leprechaun Note

Practice letter writing skills to see what your students would do if they got their hands on the leprechaun's hidden pot of gold. A quick letter writing review might be needed.

Lucky Little Leprechaun

Lucky Little Leprechaun is an age old game with a twist. Have a student head to the hallway or cover their eyes. They are the seeker. Choose another student to be the hider. The hider will hide Lucky Little Leprechaun somewhere in the classroom. (I always tell my students at least part of the leprechaun has to be visible.) The seeker will then begin their search for the leprechaun with the class telling them cold, colder when they are further away and hot, hotter when they are getting closer.

Bonus idea: Use this game to teach shades of meaning. What are words that could mean the seeker is SO close to finding the leprechaun (on fire, hottest, burning)? What are words that would mean they are far away (freezing, frigid, chilly, cold)? Work on building a shades of meaning chart showing the words in farthest to closest order.

Need more management tools? Hop over to this post: 4 High Engagement Classroom Management Tools to Try Today!, for more extremely effective ways to keep your students on track.

All Access member? Download free here.

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II) Decor Ideas

Do you have to decorate your classroom and make it a leprechaun's paradise for St. Patrick's Day?? No! But would it be a fun break from the same old, same old? Yes! Check out these ideas below.

St. Patrick's Day Placemat

A quick download and print of a class set of these placemats and you are set with morning work for the day!

Tablecloths & Coins

Heading to the dollar store for green, white, gold or orange tablecloths can make the day feel extra special. Bonus idea: find some plastic or chocolate gold coins to sprinkle around the room.

St. Patrick's Day Art

Although this would need to be done ahead of time, using student art as decor makes students feel special. (And it is SO cute!) Keep reading for links to these projects.

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III) Snack Ideas

As mentioned above, the Lucky Cereal Graphing and DIY shamrock shakes serve a multipurpose. Here is another spot to grab your snack supply letter!

All Access member? Download free here: Lucky Cereal Graphing or Snack Letter.

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IV) Centers & Crafts

The following activities would work well as station rotations. Each student group could have 15 minutes or so at each activity. An easy and fun afternoon!

Spelling

There are two activities for students to practice their spelling words (or phonics sounds) with a St. Patrick's Day Twist: Spelling Tic-Tac Gold and Leprechaun Trap Spelling.

Or, check out these Science of Reading aligned spelling practice ideas and resources: Word Work Activities.

St. Patrick's Day Math Puzzles

There is a nice assortment of March themed math puzzles, including some for St. Patrick's Day. Students love the mystery of these, while teachers love the versatility. Print off the scrambled version for an extra challenge!

Leprechaun Directed Drawing

Let each student create their own Lucky Little Leprechaun with these easy step-by-step guided drawing.

Leprechaun Toothy

Lucky Little Learners truly has a Toothy mat for any situation! Grab the Leprechaun Toothy mat below to use with ANY Toothy review game! New to Toothy? Check out this post: Toothy Task Kits.

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V) Read Alouds

Using an engaging picture book is the perfect way to kickoff any special day! Here are a few of our favorites for St. Patrick's Day.

How to Catch a Leprechaun

This book will come back into this post in the STEM section below, but we can't say enough how fun this book is! Reading it will get students thinking about how they would catch a leprechaun.

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover

Did you sing the title? I know I did! Matching the rhythm of the old childhood verse, this book brings out the silliness of St. Patrick's Day!

Springtime Reads

Or, check out this list of Springtime Read Alouds & Activities.

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VI) Party Games

Who doesn't love a good game? Besides the Lucky Little Leprechaun game mentioned above, our team came up with a few more ideas.

Musical Pictures

Musical pictures is a student AND teacher loved game. Think musical chairs with no running, pushing or fighting! Students will each get a St. Patrick's Day themed picture, while the teacher has a smaller, matching set. Play some Irish dance music while students walk in a circle around the pictures. When the music stops, each student stands by a picture. The teacher pulls out a picture and the student with the matching picture is out. Easy peasy!

St. Patrick's Day Bingo

Bingo is always a hit, so print off the St. Patrick's Day themed game today!

Other St. Patrick's Day Games

Kidsactivities.net has a fun list of St. Patrick's Day themed games that could be fun to throw in as well.

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VII) STEM

STEM Idea: Leprechaun Traps

In past years, we've built leprechaun traps. These would have to be started well in advance of St. Patrick's day so they can be set around the room to hopefully catch the little leprechaun! I am going to walk you through what we do on the day of the actual building of these traps.

1. Send home the Leprechaun Trap Letter (link)
2. Read How to Catch a Leprechaun
3. Show pictures of leprechaun traps
4. Draw up the plans
5. Build the traps
6. Write a how to paragraph
   

We go through this project with the Engineering Design Process in mind! Below I will go into further details about this!

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Parent Letter

About a week before St. Patrick's Day I send home the letter asking for materials to help the students build their leprechaun traps. The letter explains the educational benefits of the project as well.

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Read the Book

This is the Define the Problem Step.
Prior to building, I bring my students to the rug to read the story How to Catch a Leprechaun. Another one of my favorite's is the Night Before St. Patrick's Day. After we read the story we talk about how leprechauns typically show up to the classroom on St. Patrick's Day and it's our job to make sure they don't mess up our classroom!

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Show Examples of Leprechaun Traps

This is the Brainstorm Step. 
This process gets the students excited and thinking about their own trap. I literally open up my St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board and scroll through all the pictures. We stop and talk about the different ideas that we see. The kids will squeal and laugh as they anticipate what their trap will look like. 

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Draw up the Plans

This is the Design Step.
Next, I give them a plan sheet for them to draw up their plans. This is is an essential part of the STEM process and setting aside the time for your students to complete this process will force them to slow down and actually develop a plan. I also explain to my students that part of being an engineer involves the ability to be flexible and willing to change the plans after doing some testing.

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Time to Build

This is the Build…Test…Redesign Step.
Here's the logistics and management of this step. If you sent home the Leprechaun Trap Letter, perhaps parents sent in supplies. If not, here is another idea:I lay out a table filled with supplies from my cabinets. This would include construction paper, yarn, q-tips, markers, glitter, glue, pipe cleaners, etc. Each student uses their own box (I bring in a few from home for those who don't have one). The students start with the materials that they brought from home. Anything they don't plan to use, they put on the table for others to use.

I remind the students to use their plan sheet to help guide them through their building process. I encourage them to think about how the leprechaun will use the trap. Do they have something that will lure the leprechaun over to their trap (i.e. gold or glitter)? Do they have signs that tell the leprechauns what to do or where to go? How will they trick the leprechaun? How will they capture the leprechaun? I also tell them that their design does not have to be perfect the first time. This is part of the design process. Check out these amazing pictures of student traps from Emie C.!

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How to Paragraph

This is the Share Step.
Last, the kids are given a chance to walk around the classroom and look at everyone's traps. Then they sit down and write out the step by step process of how they built their leprechaun trap. Some years we've had time to invite other classrooms to walk through to take a look at their creations. During these viewings, my students have a chance to sit by their trap and read their paragraph to students who stop by to look at their trap.

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See St. Patrick's Day Ideas in Action!

Join Katie, from Team Lucky Little Learners, as she walks you through our favorite St. Patrick's Day classroom ideas.

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P.S. If you end up doing leprechaun traps this year, I'd be THRILLED if you tagged me @luckylittlelearners on social media so I can see your students' masterpieces!

P.P.S: Here is a fun BONUS idea! Try a Garden Day Classroom Transformation to create another special day for your students. Read all about it!