St. Patrick’s Day Activities

I love bringing holidays and seasons into the classroom. It keeps things new and fresh. I try to tie in activities and centers to holidays and seasons whenever possible. Here are some of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day activities. 

Materials

I never purchase anything for my classroom unless I can instantly think of 3 or more things I can use the item for. I almost always shop at Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target and occasionally Michaels. If I can’t find it, I search Amazon. I live in a small, rural town where the closest Starbucks is 20 miles away. I promise, if I can find this stuff locally, you can too! 

For St. Patrick’s Day, I picked up a pack of 5 cauldrons ($1 at Dollar Tree), some gold coins ($1 at Dollar Tree) and some Shamrock dishes ($1.27 at Walmart). I had a few larger cauldrons on hand from years past as well as clear water beads (Amazon), Learning Resources Handy Scoopers (Amazon. I use these ALLLLL the time!), and Learning Resources Balance Scale already in my classroom. 

Sensory Bin

First up, a super easy sensory bin! Prepare clear water beads and add gold coins and a few cauldrons. Have students ‘scoop’ out the coins and put them in the cauldrons! This is a great opportunity to build fine motor skills, language, and social skills! You might even be able to squeeze in some counting!

Greater Than, Less Than, and Equal To

Use the shamrock dishes and add some gold coins. Have students identify which is greater than and less than. Or be tricky and make them equal amounts!

Balance Scale

Use your gold coins to estimate weight! See which cauldron weighs more and add coins to make the cauldrons balance!

Measuring with Coins

Use your gold coins as a unit of measure! Draw some lines with a ruler and give each student a cauldron filled with coins to measure with. This makes a great butcher paper activity!

Coin Counting

Fill a cauldron with slips of paper with numbers on them. Have students draw a number and then show you the corresponding number of coins and place them in the shamrock dish. 

The possibilities for activities are endless with these materials. And the bonus? The materials were under $5 for everything. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!