I'm so excited about St. Patrick's Day this year!
Maybe it's because I have this little leprechaun to hang out with...
(This was a year ago already!!!!!! Eeeeek!)
After he was born, we started calling him Lucky because we were so lucky to have him.... and the nickname just stuck. Anytime something good happens (like an awesome parting spot, finding five dollars in the washing machine.... We say it's Cade Luck.) Everyone we know calls him Cade Luck... And we're so lucky to have him ;-)
Anywaysssss...
On to a few fun, hands on and engaging activities you can do with your students! (OR kids at home!)
Kaboom is such a fun game that students always love, and can be played to practice any subject area- math facts, sights words, etc.! All you need are popsicle sticks! Just write your sight words or math fats (or whatever you'd like your students to practice!) on the popsicle sticks and place them in a cup. On a few sticks, write "Kaboom". To play, students choose a stick and read or answer the question on the stick. If they answer correctly, they get to keep the stick. If they answer incorrectly, they place it back in the cup. If a student chooses a "Kaboom" stick, he/she must place ALL of their sticks back into the cup!
When you add gold coins to the popsicle sticks, or write directly on the coins, it turns it into a festive fun activity! Write "Unlucky Day" instead of Kaboom to make it even more festive!
Gold Coin Toss is also a fun game that involves gold coins.... Just label bins, hula hoops, baskets, (whatever you have!) with point values, and let kids toss their coins into the pots. They'll practice adding their sums and have a blast playing this carnival-like game. You can allow them to toss however many coins you'd like, and can change the point values depending on your students. It's always a good idea to use coin values so kiddos can practice adding the sum of coins!
I found the green pots {HERE} and the gold coins {HERE}.
For St. Patrick's Day, you can use Skittles, Rolos, even Trix cereal!
This activity always leads to more learning that I expect- since students can count by 5s, 10s, even 100s to add up the amount together. Students can even practice creating arrays to make piles of 5 or 10 to count them! Then they can find the difference between their estimate and the actual amount. Hello Number Talk!
You can play Make 100 with any deck of cards (just use a Sharpie to write numbers on the cards, or add zeros), but the leprechaun cards make it a little more festive and fun! This is a memory match game, and students flip cards to make the desired sum (whether it's 10, 20, or 100....or anything else you want!) Find a sum of 100, keep the cards. The person with the most cards at the end of the game wins! This is great for building number sense!
What kid doesn't love the challenge of creating a leprechaun trap! This gives students the chance to be creative, to use their hands, and to work together (if you choose!)
Check out these fun leprechaun traps on Pinterest!
Again, add fun food to any activity, and the kids will love you forever.
Data and graphing at it's finest with Lucky Charms!
This stuff is SO. MUCH. FUN! And all you need is 1 part water, 1 part white glue, and 1 part liquid starch! (Recipe found at Little Bins for Little Hands and it's the best (and easiest!!!!) recipe I've seen!) The possibilities with this are endless... Students can predict what will happen when you add more/less of an ingredient. Students can write or draw the directions in the correct order. Students can write a story about the leprechaun.........
You can download the leprechaun slime freebie below!
I will give the entire pack (80 pages of St. Patrick's Day center resources!- Student directions, teacher directions, station signs, back & white recording sheets, AND parent volunteer forms) to FIFTEEN people who pin any picture from this blog post. Just leave your email with a link to your pin. :)
Make sure to hop on over to Pinterest to check out all of these fun St. Patrick's Day ideas too!
