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7 Engaging and Fun St. Patrick’s Day Books For The Elementary Classroom

Jordana — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 18:33:00 +0000

If you love celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in your classroom, then this is your lucky today – pun intended! While I love incorporating shamrocks and little green leprechauns into my school day, the thing I love most is reading St. Patrick’s Day books to my students! With a few pages of fantasy, my students easily get their imaginations going and excitedly jump into the creative activities I have planned to go along with each book! Here are my (lucky number) 7 favorite St. Patrick’s Day books to read in the classroom!

1. The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day

The first book I have for you today can actually be read a day or so before St. Patrick’s Day to set up the accompanying activity to complete after reading. The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day by Natasha Wing is an adorable rhyming story about a brother and sister who set up a variety of leprechaun traps around their house in order to catch a “wee Irishman”! The children do in fact catch a leprechaun, and your students will love seeing what happens when they do!

The illustrations of the children’s traps are a perfect springboard for your students to envision their own leprechaun trap! Gather old cereal boxes, oatmeal containers, construction paper, scissors, and glue, then let those kids build the trap of their dreams! When they are finished, allow students to present their traps to the class and then display them around the room (to see if they catch anything…).

Whether you choose to complete this project in your classroom or send it home as a parent project, your students will love constructing their own leprechaun traps! And if you aren’t able to create an actual trap, students can design/draw a trap, color it, and label the important pieces. Mess-free!

2. Lucky Tucker

In the book Lucky Tucker by Leslie McGuirk, Lucky Tucker is a funny little dog who runs away from the unlucky things in his life. When a leprechaun suggests he roll around in a patch of four-leaf clovers, Tucker’s day changes, and everything good (and super lucky!) begins to happen to him!

For a quick and simple after-reading activity, give each student a large four-leaf clover. On each leaf of the clover, students must write one thing that would make their day the luckiest day ever! Hang these cute clovers in the hallway or (if you want to extend the activity further) use it as a brainstorming sheet for a writing activity with the prompt “My Luckiest Day!”

3. Ten Lucky Leprechauns

If you want to add a bit of counting to your story time, try the book 10 Lucky Leprechauns by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook. The book is similar in style to songs such as “The Ants Go Marching” where the story starts out with one character and (through rhyming patterns) picks up another character on each page until they get to 10. Your students will enjoy the cute illustrations and catching the rhyming words on each page!

And speaking of rhyming words, this book is the perfect partner for a Rhyming Rainbow activity! Give students a black-and-white rainbow template. On each of the colors of the rainbow, students will write two words that rhyme. Once the rainbow has two rhyming words in each space, color the rainbow!

4. How To Catch A Leprechaun

If your students love a good, silly trick, then you have to read How To Catch A Leprechaun by Adam Wallace! Students are treated to a story about a very sneaky leprechaun who brags about not being caught by a variety of traps that have been laid out for him! He boasts that each trap is not enough to catch him because he is too smart to be ensnared by such contraptions.

This book is not only very clever with the way it uses words, but the illustrations play a very important role in the story as well! While you are reading to your students, be sure to ask questions like:

What is wrong with the bathroom? Do you want your bathroom to look like that? Why not?
Why did the leprechaun say the first trap was “a snap”?
What did the leprechaun mean when he said he “fixed their shoes”?
Why was the man so dizzy? What could have happened to him?
Do you think the leprechaun will ever be caught? Why or Why not?

Students should use their prior knowledge and the pictures as clues to better understand the text and make inferences about what is happening.

A fun post-story activity would be to write a class letter to the leprechaun in the book either inviting him to visit your room or asking him not to visit (depending on the consensus of your students). Allow students to give you the words to say while you write them down on a large poster or chart paper. Hang the letter in the hallway or on the outside of your classroom door. Students could even draw mini-posters that echo the sentiments in the class letter!

5. St. Patrick’s Day

There are so many silly and funny leprechaun books, but there are also excellent books that teach true facts about the history of St. Patrick’s Day. In the book St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons, students learn about the real Saint Patrick, his life, how the holiday came to be, and how the holiday is celebrated. This book is so jam-packed with interesting, new information that it may be difficult for students to remember it all!

Create a “clover patch” of St. Patrick facts by giving students 3 paper clovers. Ask them to write one fact in a complete sentence on each clover. After they are finished, students should choose their favorite fact and teach it to at least three other students in the class. When everyone has finished “teaching”, allow students to add their clovers to the patch (on a bulletin board or taped to an area on the wall) where everyone can be reminded of the cool facts they learned about St. Patrick!

6. The Leprechaun’s Gold

A less-silly, but very engaging St. Patrick’s Day book is The Leprechaun’s Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards. In this Irish legend, two men, Pat and Tom, are heading to compete against each other in a contest to be named the best harpist in the land. The two men show their true selves to the reader as Tom purposely ruins Pat’s harp and Pat helps a leprechaun when he’s in trouble. Pat’s good deed does not go unrewarded, and students will love that Tom gets his comeuppance at the end of the story!

This book is perfect for reviewing character traits! Simply take a blank piece of white paper and fold it in half (like a greeting card). Open the “card” and have students draw a picture of Old Pat on the left-hand side of the paper. Students will write one adjective that describes his character (helpful, kind, caring, etc…) and an example of something he did or said in the book that proves this is true about him. On the right side of the paper, follow the same directions for Young Tom.

Once finished, have your students fold their paper closed and use the “front” to recreate a brand new book cover complete with a new title as well!

7. The Luckiest Leprechaun

This sweet story shares the tale of a grumpy leprechaun finding a friend! In The Luckiest Leprechaun by Justine Korman, MacKenzie O’Shamrock doesn’t believe he needs friends and spends his days living a quiet life in the park. One day, a digging dog accidentally destroys his home and she promises to fix her mistake by taking care of MacKenzie. Throughout the story, you see the two slowly become friends as Lucky the dog refuses to give up on grumpy MacKenzie.

The happy ending will warm your students’ hearts, but the whole story just might inspire them to imagine themselves as a leprechaun! As a class, brainstorm ideas of what leprechauns do all day! Where do they sleep? What do they eat? What do they do for fun?

When students have really given leprechauns a lot of thought, tell them that they will become a leprechaun! Allow students to draw themselves as a leprechaun and write a story about a day in their leprechaun life! The book you read and the class brainstorming session will help even the most reluctant writers come up with a fun story! Once everyone is finished with drawing and writing, allow them to read their stories to the class. Leprechaun accents can be optional!

So Many Fun St. Patrick’s Day Books!

I just knew that 7 was your lucky number! I hope you found a few new favorites to share in your classroom this year! With a little luck, these books and activities will keep your students engaged and learning through all of the excitement of St. Patrick’s Day!

Pin These St. Patrick’s Day Books for Later

If these books and activities have gotten you excited to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your students, then make sure you Pin this post to your favorite Teaching Pinterest Board!

The post 7 Engaging and Fun St. Patrick’s Day Books For The Elementary Classroom appeared first on Elementary Island.

Fun Spelling Practice for St. Patrick’s Day {Think Centers}

Jordana — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 19:45:00 +0000

Most students begin learning to spell in their first and second grade classrooms. Most early spelling words are words that need to be memorized because decoding them is not possible. These are called our sight words. Sight words are words that do not follow spelling rules nor do they follow the six syllable types.

These sight words need to be written, read and applied to your daily curriculum. Most teachers focus on including a few of the sight words amongst other words with a pattern. There is no right or wrong way to do it, but I want to offer some practice that will help a child visualize their words multiple times in a fun and meaningful way.

Over the school year, I incorporate spelling in our monthly theme. It offers variety to the students and they often like to color the pages afterwards. For March, we of course focus on St. Patrick’s Day! There are three areas I tend to focus on when creating my St. Patrick’s Day Spelling Activities, as you will see below.

1. Repeated Practice

Repeated practice is necessary for those sight words that we discussed earlier. These words need to be written and read over and over. These printables offer a variety of practice for this area and do a great job of adding a holiday element to keep students engaged.

These spelling practice pages have students writing and rewriting their words, adding one letter at a time as they complete the word, use their left and write hand to write and roll and spell for a variety of activities for this St. Patrick’s Day theme.

Rainbow words offers another opportunity for student to have repeated practice in a fun way that students will want to complete.

A picture find is a great way to incorporate partner work with their practice. Students will “hide” their spelling words amongst the picture and a partner will need to find them. If you would like a challenge, have the students write “oops words” in the picture (words that are ALMOST spelled correctly). This offers an extra challenge for the searcher!

2. Skills Based

This spelling packet also includes a few skills-based activities. Students will put words in ABC order, by the amount of letters they have, or sort by other means.

3. Application Activities

We all know that it’s not really “learned” until the students are able to apply their learning. Two activities are offered where students are asked to write their words within a writing. One way is through spelling sentences and the other way is through a holiday themed story with word bank.

Spelling does NOT have to be boring! These activities can transform your spelling centers and offer some fun to repeated practice! Are you ready for a change in mood from your students? Get the packet HERE.

If you are interested in other spelling packets available for other months, you can click HERE.

Or if you are looking for other amazing St. Patrick’s Day activities, please click HERE!

The post Fun Spelling Practice for St. Patrick’s Day {Think Centers} appeared first on Elementary Island.

FREE Fraction Fun

Jordana — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 19:43:00 +0000

Your students will love learning about fractions with this fun rainbow fractions activity. I mean, what could be more fun than fractions and fruit loops!

Fractions are one of those math skills that our students will use for the rest of their lives. So it’s important to help them build a solid foundation and understanding of fractions in the early years.

This super engaging St. Patrick’s Day fraction activity is sure to help your students master those important fraction basics while having fun too. In this activity, students will be creating a rainbow using fruit loops, and the rainbow becomes the basis for the fractions. Students then write fractions to represent each color of their rainbow.

After using this activity for a few years, I have found that this activity really helps students clear up any misunderstandings they may have when it comes to the numerator and denominator.

Here’s how it works . . .

I start by handing students a blank sheet of construction paper or cardstock. I really like to use the large construction paper if it is available. Then I add a pile of Fruit Loops (I buy the generic ones – but any type of fruit cereal will work) and I tell the students to make a rainbow on their paper using the cereal. I let them decide what kind of rainbow, how many rows to include and what colors to use.

Next, we use the rainbow to make fractions. Students first have to figure out how many fruit loops they used in order to find the denominator of the fraction. Then they have to count each color to find the numerator. They write a fraction for each color of the rainbow.

If your students are learning how to reduce fractions, you can require that they also write the fraction in its fully reduced form.

After getting their fractions checked, students write their fractions on the Rainbow Fractions page that I give them. It’s included in the free download for you to use too!

Once they are done, I have the students use crayons to create a scene around their rainbow. In my classroom, we always do a St. Patrick’s Day scene because that is when we study fractions. But . . . you can use this activity any time of the year. Rainbows never go out of season!

Add a Writing Element Too!

If you like to double-dip, then you can use this picture as a writing prompt too! Have students write about their picture using a prompt you provide or with the picture as the prompt. Some fun writing ideas include:

What’s At the End of the Rainbow?
How to Catch a Leprechaun
Why is a Rainbow so Colorful?
One day I saw a leprechaun . . .
One spring day I . . .
Somewhere over the rainbow . . .

When students are finished with their pictures, make sure to create a fun and eye-catching display. These colorful fraction pictures make a great bulletin board, locker or hallway display. We always get compliments on them and I know you will too!

Ready to Try It Out?

This Rainbow Fraction activity is FREE for you to download. I hope that you and your students enjoy it as much as we have in my classroom! I’d love to see your finished pictures. You can always email me or tag me on social media!

Looking for More Fun Fraction Practice?

If you are looking for more fraction practice for your students, then check out this Differentiated Fractions resource. This resource is filled with lots of fraction practice to help your students master fractions. In this Differentiated Fractions resource you get:

11 No Prep Printable Activities in 3 different levels
A Pre/Post Test
A Fraction Game

You can find this Differentiated Fraction Resource in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Save these fraction activities for later!

Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily find this freebie!

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