Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, and we’ve been in full green for two weeks! In an effort to teach students about the importance of wearing green, not to say “St. Paddy’s Day,” and that Ireland is a country in Europe, we decided to do a great activity for 1º-3º of primary school (ages 6-9).
We began with a Powerpoint activity explaining, in very simple terms, the following facts about St. Patrick:
- St. Patrick is an Irish legend.
- Patrick was a priest who lived in Ireland. There were also a lot of snakes living in Ireland, and people were scared of them.
- Patrick wanted to help the people, so he took his drum and played loudly to scare all of the snakes. He walked all over the island until he scared every last snake.
- Today, you can’t find snakes in Ireland.
For the 3º graders, we added the “real” story of St. Patrick to practice the past tense verbs that they’re studying right now in English class.
Then, we added a craft activity. For 1º and 2º, we used piper cleaners and plastic beads to make little snakes like these:
From Pinterest.com
For the 3º graders, we had them bring in a magazine and made a collage snake with one googly eye. Here’s a great idea:
From Pinterest.com
The students love making the snakes! Then, we planned a “visit from St. Patrick” for the 16th and 17th of March.
We used the following items to make a St. Patrick costume: a monk’s tunic (found at a costume store) with a cross necklace; plain mocassins (you could also use sandals); a white wig and beard (to keep the students from recognizing us); and a large djembe drum.
One teacher introduced St. Patrick to the class and asked questions about what they could remember from the Powerpoint presentation. Then St. Patrick played the drum and “collected” all the snakes in the class. He finally gave them a picture of a Shamrock, which they could wear if they didn’t have any green!
St. Patrick’s Day was a real hit!
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