St. Patrick’s Day Lessons and Irish Heritage Month Resources
Videos | Lesson Plans | Additional Resources
Introduction:
“Saint Patrick’s Day (Irish: Lá ‘le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially St. Paddy’s Day or simply Paddy’s Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa AD 385-461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on 17th of March. The day is a national holiday of Ireland … It is also a public holiday in Montserrat. In Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Argentina and New Zealand, it is widely celebrated, but is not an official holiday….” – Wikipedia
Art:
- This is a lesson idea for St. Patrick’s Day called “Painting Without Paint” (P-K)
- This Karo Syrup painting idea can be used for St. Pat’s if you substitute “Shamrocks” (P-1)
- Here students write Irish blessings on green hearts that are combined to form shamrocks (K-6)
- This is a quick idea for making St. Patrick’s Day shamrock headbands (P1)
Language Arts:
- Here students examine the punctuation of a message left by a leprechaun (P)
- In this idea, notes are exchanged with mischievous night-visiting leprechauns (P-1)
- “Guess the Shamrock” is a spelling game idea (1)
- “If I Had a Pot Of Gold…” is a creative writing idea for St. Patrick’s Day (2)
- In this idea, students compare and contrast their St. Patrick’s Day traditions (2-4)
Math:
- In this Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey type game, students count and learn directional words while “Filling Our Pot of Gold” (P)
- Students graph clover shamrocks that they find in the schoolyard in this lesson (K-1)
- This is a “Green Survey” and graph (1)
- This graphing idea uses Lucky Charms cereal (2-3)
- Here’s another magically delicious graphing activity with Lucky Charms (3-5)
- In this math idea, lucky students find four-leaf clovers amid the 3-leaf shamrocks (MO)
Science:
- In this science idea, a carnation is magically turned green (K-4)
- Here is an idea for growing shamrocks (K-5)
Social Science:
- This lesson teaches the history of St. Patrick’s Day (2)
- Students can put themselves in the shoes Irish-American immigrants here by virtually exploring the Ellis Island immigration station (5)
Other:
- Here are ideas for green food for St. Patrick’s Day (P-1)
- This St. Patrick’s Day lesson is an amalgam of other lesson ideas found on this site (2-4)
General Cultural Heritage:
- An immigrant group’s “culture capsule” is created in this multidisciplinary lesson
- Teach about different countries and cultures with this must-have compilation of creative ideas (1-8)
- This is a set of lesson plans for an Oral History Unit(4-6):
- This first lesson discusses how to do an interview
- This one focuses on obtaining information through an interview
- The last lesson addresses the interviewing of elders to learn about their life in the community
- This lesson is on cultural awareness and sharing traditions (4-6)
- This lesson plan is on immigration and tracing one’s lineage (4-5)
- This brief idea involves learning history from grandparents (4-5)
- Here’s an activity for developing a cultural calendar (4)
- This is a lesson plan about family and cultures (5)
- Here students research the culture, language, and traditions of their native land of origin (6)
- Students create a “Where am I from” family tree photo story from a template in this lesson
(6-9) - Clipart is used here to create a “Where is your family from” quilt square (7)
- An immigrant group’s “culture capsule” is created in this multidisciplinary lesson (7)
World Geography:
- This is a geography lesson on “finding your spot in the world” (2)
- This activity involves creating travel brochures (2-3)
- Here’s an idea for students to make flags for different countries (3)
- This is a multidisciplinary lesson on “Music Around the World” (4-5)
- Students note the differences in melody and rhythm between songs from various cultures and our own (4-5)
- “See The World” is another good idea for studying other countries (6-10)
- Students create a travel brochure to an imaginary or actual place in this lesson (6-8)
- This is a good art-focused lesson on painting, the elements of light, countries and their continents (7-8)
- “Come to my Country” brochures are created in this geography lesson (7)
- Sixth graders make a foreign country photo story here
E-Pals:
- This lesson is about E-Pal communication and the other cultures that may be encountered through it (2)
- “Keypals” is a well-developed electronic foreign penpal unit (2-4)
- Here is another great international penpal idea (4-12)
- If you have any St. Patrick’s Day lesson plans to share, please add them to our site!
- Here are ten History.com videos on the history of St. Patrick’s Day, its traditions, and legends
- Biography.com celebrates St. Patrick and the Irish with pieces on Irish icons and Irish-American presidents, plus music, interactive maps and a quiz
- Here students make leprechaun traps which leads to some very creative writing
- The class can make felt leprechaun hats with this craft lesson
- This video aims to teach and promote Irish culture and heritage
- There are over 100 videos of Irish history collected here including tales of St. Patrick and a moving music video reading actual letters sent to sons who immigrated to America
- These videos take you on a tour of Ireland
- You can find St. Patrick’s Day worksheets at EdHelper.com
- More St. Patrick’s Day craft activities are detailed at Crayola.com
- Learn more about the history of St. Patrick’s Day, its food, traditions, parades, authors and other important people that celebrate the day at History.com
- These high school lesson plans from PBS.com search for Ancient Ireland
- Download Irish tunes, jigs and lyrics here
- Here is an Irish dance thinkquest
- These sites take the sham from the shamrock and the con from the leprechaun
- Here is a St. Patrick’s Day PowerPoint and a reader’s theater script with 25 parts!
