Hands-on St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Holiday Themed study kids activities to promote literacy, numeracy, fine-motor control, and sensory play for preschoolers and kindergartners.
Montessori Holiday Themed study brings a fresh breath to a subject that might otherwise not inspire little hands and minds! Yes, math is important, but it is much more fun counting gold coins than traditional wooden counters! And why not trace in dyed green rice rather than in a workbook! And of course, what child would not want to tinker brain’s neurons to build the BEST Leprechaun trap! Thus, what is a better way to celebrate spring and rainbows than with hands-on ☘️ St. Patrick’s Day Kids Activities? So, let’s spur active learning, probe every fiber of creativity, and strengthen small muscles of the hands while little fingers are threading, posting, transferring, and manipulating.
St. Patrick’s Day Kids Activities
In the below Montessori Holiday Themed study, you will find St. Patrick’s Day Kids Activities we have done when Adrian was preschooler and kindergartner, summarized by the areas of study.
Learning about St. Patrick’s Day
And what is the better way to learn about the ☘️ St. Patrick’s Day than through books!
See HERE Books 📚 we are reading for☘️St. Patrick’s Day
We also read a few legends about St. Patrick:
- St. Patrick and the Poison: some people say that a wizard tried to kill St. Patrick by putting poison in his drink. St. Patrick quickly turned it into ice and tossed it from the cup.
- St. Patrick & his Cloak: it is said that St. Patrick had a friend who borrowed St. Patrick’s cloak. This friend was miraculously saved from the fire, without being hurt, by wearing St. Patrick’s cloak.
- St. Patrick & a Shamrock: St. Patrick used a shamrock to explain to people about the Holy Trinity~one God in three divine beings: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Growing at his feet was a shamrock, so he used this plant to explain three in one, one stem with three leaves.
- St. Patrick & the Fish: each year, on March 17th, fish rise from the sea. They pass before St. Patrick’s alter in Ireland and then disappear back into the sea.
- St. Patrick & the Sunset: it is said that the sun did not set when St. Patrick died and that is shone in the sky for twelve days and nights.
St. Patrick’s Day ~ How People Celebrate:
We learned that on St. Patrick’s Day many people give cards or flowers to their family and friends. People also make cookies, cakes and other goodies to share with others. Some people wear green carnations or pin shamrocks to their clothing to celebrate the holiday. People dance Irish jigs and play games. Pipers and fiddlers play Irish tunes. There are green hats everywhere, people are wearing green costumes, green banners are hung on windows … there is a lot of green – everywhere! People also decorate their houses with shamrocks, a plant with three leaves, looking like a clover. Shamrock ☘️ is a symbol of Saint Patrick as well as of Ireland.
Did you know?
- Your odds of finding a lucky 🍀four-leafed clover is 1 in 10,000!
- 🎩☘️Do leprechauns really exist?! Yes! “You can see a rainbow 🌈 almost every day in 🇮🇪 Ireland so you start believing in leprechauns, and so does the 🇪🇺European Union! Leprechauns are officially protected species under EU law! The Carlingford Sliabh Foy Loop Trail became a sanctuary and protected land for the country’s remaining leprechauns—236 in total that live there! And nearby Slieve Foye Mountain gained protection under the European Habitats Directive, which protects flora, fauna, and apparently, magical fairies.” Read HERE.
- 🇮🇪 Ireland has a population of only 4. 8 mil people, so you can drive for hours and not see a soul.
- The harp is a national instrument.
- On St. Patrick’s day, it is customary to attend a mass, wear green and pin a harp with a green shamrock to clothing.
- Traditional soda bread’s ingredients are buttermilk, baking soda, salt, flour, and butter. Contrary to popular belief, no sugar or raisins added to traditional Irish bread.
- There are no snakes in Ireland! (There are only three types of amphibians in Ireland, some sea turtles, and only one type of reptile – a lizard.) It is just too damp and cold for these cold-blooded animals since the average warmest temperature in the summer is about 68F (ave 40-50F ). The winters are grey and damp around 30 to 40F with common frost, but there is rarely snow in Ireland.
☘️St. Patrick’s Day Kids Activities
RAINBOW ALPHABET MATCHING
See HERE 🌈Rainbow Alphabet Lower to Upper Case Matching
☘️ St. Patrick’s Day MATH Kids Activities
COUNTING COINS AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW
Making a DIY rainbow is super easy and fun! Cut a paper plate in half and then color it in a rainbow pattern. (We love solid tempera paint sticks as they dry in 90 seconds and are perfect grip even for the smallest hands.) Optional: roll the dice, and make that number from pipe cleaners, which is awesome for fine motor and number formation. Then, fill the pot with gold coins, or place the coins on the DIY rainbow.
Roll & Count Gold On A Rainbow
See HERE Roll & Count Gold on a Rainbow
Shamrock Subtraction Sensory Bin
See HERE Shamrock Rainbow Pom Poms Subtraction Sensory Bin
Shamrock Hands-On ADDITION
SEE HERE EXTENSIONS AND VARIATIONS
Four-Leafed Lucky Clover 100 BOARD
SEE DETAILS HERE
Shamrock Popsicle Puzzle Skip Counting By 10
☘️ St. Patrick’s Day Practical Life Kids Activities
SILICONE MOLD TONGS TRANSFERRING
Transferring, whether with hands or tongs, is a quintessential Montessori Practical Life activity. However, how fun it is to make it as part of ☘️St. Patrick’s Day Kids Activities by varying a COLOR of your materials! With children age 2 YR +, present in a shallow bowl and offer to transfer using HANDS. You can modify, according to your child’s level, and offer different transferring tools: from a spoon to tongs to even chopsticks! (See more on transferring HERE ~ Halloween Inspired Tongs Transferring.) SMALL ITEMS ARE CHOKING HAZARD!
These mini tongs are perfect for little hands to exercise fine motor control and strengthen small muscles of the hands! Besides all the GREEN color, adds novelty to the activity and makes it inviting! We are using a green silicone mold (you can also use an ice tray) and styrofoam-covered balls (buy gold ones here) ~ you may also use pom poms. Have fun transferring!
Shamrock Pipe Cleaner Beads Fine Motor Craft
☘️ St. Patrick’s Day SENSORIAL Kids Activities
Montessori Color Boxes | Knobless Cylinders Rainbow
Bottle Cap Rainbow Pom Pom Fine Motor DIY
SEE DETAILS HERE
SHADES OF GREEN DYED RICE
Inspired by the 💚Green book, we are also making shades of GREEN today with this DIY DYED rice! Just add a little bit of vinegar (we are using a bulb baster for that) and desired food coloring to your dry rice. (Separate each color in an individual plastic ziplock bag.) Mix well, air dry and it is ready to use! Most coloring we used (such as green, seafoam, and turquoise) is from this liquid dye set for soap. We also used a neon green (with a pointy cap) from this food coloring pack, and the last one: kiwi green was from this liquid soap set.
DID YOU KNOW that Ireland’s nickname is ‘Emerald Isle’ because of its verdant landscapes and lush grass? Also, the color green holds a deeper religious meaning of Catholicism. Green stands for fighting for independence and freedom from England. The green color also stands for being able to exercise free religious choice. Gold, on the other hand, as seen on the Irish flag, represents Protestant ruling under the British Empire, and white stands for hope.
HOWEVER, the original color associated with St. Patrick was NOT green, but BLUE! Patrick is shown wearing blue vestments in several artworks. It was not until later that the green color became associated with Ireland due to the beautiful green countryside and the above-mentioned religious content.
SEE HERE Leprechaun Sensory Bin
STICKERs RAINBOW COLOR MATCH
This math sensorial color matching activity offers a child to practice numbers recognition and sequencing, numeral to quantity association and color matching. Offer a child to place on the rainbow’s color-rays the exact amount of matching colorful dot stickers: 1 , 2 , 3 and so forth! (We are using these amazing Prismacolors pastels.)
☘️ St. Patrick’s Day STEM Kids Activities
St. Patrick’s GREEN SLIME
RAINBOW WALKING WATER
See HERE Primary Colors, Water & Paper Capillary Action Timelapse Kids Science Experiment ( Rainbow Walking Water).
COFFER FILTERS Capillary Action
Dry Paper Underwater Experiment
☘️ St. Patrick’s Day ‘TRAP’ Kids Activities
St. Patrick’s Day PLAY DOUGH
See HERE How NOT to Catch a Leprechaun
Leprechauns are imaginary figures from Irish folklore, the size of a thumb, mischievous but hard-working, earning their gold by making shoes for fairies. Leprechauns like nuts and dandelion tea. They live long lives ~ two hundred years is not even considered of age. And, you can only catch a Leprechaun if you happen to have in a possession a very hard-to-find lucky four-leafed clover. If caught, a Leprechaun must grant you three wishes, and he might even reveal where does he hide his gold at the end of the rainbow.
MORE PLAY DOUGH IDEAS
SEE HERE HOW TO MAKE No-Cook Homemade Rainbow Play dough
☘️ St. Patrick’s Day Kids CRAFTS
Marshmallow Shamrock Stamping Kids Craft
See HERE Marshmallow Shamrock Stamping Kids Craft
Shamrock TPR PUPPET
See HERE ☘️Shamrock DIY Recycled Toilet Paper Roll Craft
Our Shamrock puppets are decorating our window pane.
Shamrock CORK STAMPING
The next time you will be having champagne, save the corks and make this Shamrock craft! Just tie three corks with a green pipe cleaner to represent the leaves of a Shamrock. Then dip your “Shamrock stamp” into the green washable paint and apply to the paper. We used this tempera paint to draw a stem.
Laminated☘️ Shamrock Puppet Craft.
See HERE St. Patrick’s Day Inspired Laminated☘️ Shamrock Puppet Craft
And, by the way, a Leprechaun did end up visiting us for a quick bite after all!
Children were super excited to see that he ate all the nuts we left out for him and drank some of his favorite dandelion tea (though spilling most of it). He also left gold-dusted footprints all over and two gold coins. We did not catch him on camera though leprechauns are quick, shrewd and camera-shy.
Have you been lucky to catch a Leprechaun? Have any of your “perfect” traps worked? Leave a comment! I love hearing from you.
☘️ St. Patrick’s Inspired Learning Space
For more on St Patrick’s spirit and to see how we decorate our classroom, see HERE our 2019 entire St Patrick’s Inspired Learning Space.
For more details on what we did when Adrian was three years old, read HERE St. Patrick’s Day ☘️2017 Inspired Learning Space, What is on our shelves, Activities roundup.
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