St. Patrick's Day Ideas & Freebies

Are you looking for some fun and educational St. Patrick's Day activities to use in your your ELA classroom?  Keep reading for some ideas and freebies!

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Click the book images to find them on Amazon.

This is one of my most favorite books to share on St. Patrick's Day and I haven't really seen it on many blogs, so maybe it'll be a new one for you.  It is a simple story about a nice old man who is an excellent harp player.  He uses his skill for pleasure and doesn't make money from it.  A younger harp player thinks this is foolish.  The two plan to enter a contest to find the best harp player in Ireland.  Along the way, the younger man breaks the harp of his opponent to ensure that he is the winner.  Regardless, the old man stops to help a leprechaun, putting himself last.  In the end, he receives help from the leprechauns because of his kindness and wins the contest.

I think it's a perfect book to use to teach theme!

Click on the image above to find this graphic organizer for free here in my TpT store. The best part?  You can use it for ANY St. Patrick's Day book! 

I also like to share a nonfiction book about St. Patrick's Day to give my students (and myself!) some history about the holiday.  Gail Gibbons books are perfect for this because they give just enough information without making it too complex.  This book also shares some legends that are common about Saint Patrick that my students always find interesting (like that he rid Ireland of snakes).

This would be perfect for practicing main idea and details.  I made some large shamrocks with general main ideas typed inside.  Students can then work either independently or in a group to record details about the main idea on the leaves of the shamrocks.  These would work with any nonfiction St. Patrick's Day text really.  You can find these in Google Docs here.  There is also an editable one that you can use to add any main idea you'd like.  The font is KG Why You Gotta Be So Mean.

I also made a St. Patrick's Day mini book that could be used to give students some factual information as well.  It comes with ten "right there" questions for you to post around the room.  Students need to find the questions around the room and record the answers on the back of the book.  You can find this product in my TpT store here.  My students always found these fun and it's a quick way to get in some reading but still incorporate the holiday.

I just made this St. Patrick's Day idiom freebie and love it!  There are 12 different idioms related to either gold, green, rainbows, or luck.  There is a sentence with a blank as well as a definition for each idiom as well.  Students need to match them as shown in the above image.

I made them in black and white so you can save ink by just printing on colored paper if you'd like.  You can find this for free in my TpT store here.

Last week, I blogged about a fun experiment that would perfect for St. Patrick's day...making milk rainbows!  I always connect this to procedural text when doing this with older students and typed up a freebie for you all.  You can find the text along with more directions for the making the milk rainbow in this post.

I know lots of teachers with younger students hide either leprechauns or gold around the classroom.  Why not connect this to prepositional phrases and have your students describe where they find the gold?  On the desk?  In the drawer?  Under the book?  Simple way for young students to practice using prepositions and oral language.

If you want something ready and made, the above product is in my TpT store here.  Just tape the pots of gold up around your room and use one of the recording sheets to have your students write their sentences with prepositional phrases (with or without stems).

I have two additional St. Patrick's Day literacy products in my TpT store.  Click on the images below to check them out.

If you are looking for more spring or St. Patrick's Day ideas, follow my Pinterest board below.

Follow Literacy Spark's board Spring Activities & Holidays on Pinterest.