The Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day parties are over. And that means one thing: spring is officially here! Perhaps one of the most fun things about celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the classroom is the return of spring and the last stretch until the end of the school year (yes, it’s true!) Besides, who doesn’t love turning their classroom into different shades of green and colorful rainbows? St. Patrick’s Day means we made it to the sunnier side of the year, and here at Literacy with Aylin Claahsen, we are so here for it.
Today, we have 5 ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the classroom. It isn’t the most obvious of holidays – Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day are easier ones to prep for. There seems to be a plethora of fun games and activities for the kiddos during those seasons. Much like its leprechauns, St. Patrick’s Day is a little tricker. But we’ve got you! Here are 5 ways to make this emerald holiday one to remember.
St. Patrick's Day Decoding Activities
First up is my St. Patrick’s Day Phonics and Fluency Activities. Hot and fresh off the press this school year, these decoding activities have been a hit in everyone’s classroom! And it’s easy to see why. Students will practice reading words in isolation, within sentences, reading two short stories, and playing a fun board game. Each of these four activities covers a variety of phonics skills: CVC words, digraphs, beginning blends, ending blends, added endings, CVCe words, r-controlled vowels, vowel teams, and diphthongs. Do some quick math and you’ll realize that these include 36 phonics activities for your students! They can be used in whole or small groups, and centers, and also with partner work. These guys are so versatile, your list on how to use them will be endless. And speaking of endless, consider grabbing my Phonics and Fluency Activities Seasonal Bundle – which is always growing! It provides the same activities for all different seasons and holidays!
Second, we have some St. Patrick’s Day I Am a Reader Passages just for you. These ever-popular I Am a Reader Passages are always a hit in the classroom because of the confidence they give readers. And the St. Patrick’s Day ones are particularly special, because it’s this time of year where we can really see our readers take flight after all their hard work in the fall and winter! This pack includes 10 St. Patrick’s Day-themed decodable reading passages accompanied with comprehension questions. These are written for our early readers who are just beginning their reading journey. Students will work their way through word work activities, comprehension questions, and encouraging statements that tell them they are a true reader! These activities do a great job instilling confidence and encourage growth as readers.. These I Am a Reader Passages are perfect for the kindergarten classroom, but would also work well with struggling readers from 1st-3rd. Long story short? You’re gonna want these!
St. Patrick's Day Vowel Sounds Activity
Let’s move onto a skill that all early readers could use some review with: vowel sounds! My St. Patrick’s Day CVC and CVCe Activity is a great choice if you’d like your students to brush up on their vowels. And the best part? It’s FREE! Simply grab some letter tiles and print this freebie out on green paper for a fun festive pop of color. If you don’t have letter tiles on hand, students can always use ones that are printed out, or slip these in a pocket protector and have them use dry erase markers! Students fill in the blanks with the correct vowel and, depending on the surrounding letters, say its sound. It’s important for students to say the sound out loud during this activity so they can have practice reading the various sounds vowels make.
St. Patrick's Day Word Work Activities
If you’re feeling crafty and want to take matters into your own hands, a St. Patrick’s Day word work activity is a good call. Simply cut shamrocks out of green construction paper or cardstock. One one side, write two words that make up a contraction. When you pass them out to students, it’s their job to flip it over and write what the contraction is on the other side. Or rather, students can pair up with a partner and they can be the ones doing both of these steps. Working on a different phonics skill, such as rhyming or synonyms and antonyms? Just swap the contractions out for rhyming words or opposites! Since this activity can take on many forms, you’ll want to keep it in your back pocket for all holidays!
And last but not least, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a fun pot of gold activity. This one can involve the whole class. This game can be done with almost any phonics skill, but for explanation purposes, let’s assume you’re working on digraphs. Draw two large pots of gold on the white board (you can choose to do more if desired). Write a th on one and a ch on the other. Then, print out gold coins or cut out yellow circles from construction paper and write words that contain both the th and the ch digraphs. When you’re done passing them out to students, they take turns coming up and placing them inside the correct pot of gold. As mentioned before, this activity can take on a variety of forms, depending on what skills you’d like to focus on!
When we’re playing these St. Patrick’s Day games and activities in our rooms, it means so much more than learning and having fun together. It means that we are approaching that final quarter of the year and we get to celebrate and see all the amazing accomplishments of our students. These St, Patrick’s Day activities will showcase all your students have learned throughout the year, which is the best part. You’re going to have so much fun with your students that you may have your coworkers turning green!
