[Today’s blog post “17 Fun and Educational St. Patrick’s Day Ideas” was written by contributor Michelle Habrych.]
Who Was St. Patrick?
Thanks to Veggie Tales, I can no longer think of St. Patrick’s Day without seeing Lufti’s Fanciful Flannelgraph in my mind. I’ve compiled 17 Fun and Educational St. Patrick’s Day Ideas for celebrating this holiday in your homeschool.
First, watch the Veggie Tales story of St. Patrick here. It’s just over eight minutes in length and extremely entertaining, as well as informative. Despite being Veggie Tales, it’s not just for little kids. My teens still enjoy it!
St. Patrick’s Day Crafts
Disney offers a bunch of free printable sheets and craft ideas here. I like the shamrock maze and word search.
DLTK is great for free printable crafts of all kinds, and they have plenty to offer for this holiday. Check out their coloring pages, crafts, recipes, games, and more. There are even worksheets which have anagrams, writing prompts, and math through fifth grade. Take a break from your usual studies on St. Patrick’s Day and work some of these into your plans. The kids will love it!
History of St. Patrick’s Day
If you would like to know more about the history of the holiday or have the kids research it and write a paper on it, check out StPatricksDay.com. It offers a history written for kids to understand. Additionally, there are pages with even more facts about the country of Ireland and its history.
There is even a page called 50 St. Patrick’s Day Facts.
For middle schoolers and high schoolers, here’s a brief history of the holiday from ABC News.
This one is from a few years ago and features shots of world landmarks lit up green for the holiday. It talks about leprechauns and shows footage of a short parade. The news anchors are a little goofy too. It’s just under 3 minutes in length.
This short one is more places lit up for the holiday, including the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
St. Patrick’s Day Recipes
Irish soda bread would be fun to make and you can call it science for the day (kitchen chemistry!). There is a recipe for Irish soda bread on this site, as well as for other Irish foods.
St. Patrick’s Day Fun and Games
For a break from the ordinary, this site offers some St. Patrick’s themed games for kids.
Educational St. Patrick’s Day Ideas
If you want to be creative and yet still learn something, here are some free St. Patrick’s Day limerick worksheets on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Tomie dePaola wrote a picture book about St. Patrick called Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland. If you can’t get the book prior to the holiday, you can see it and hear it on YouTube here.
(There are many other stories available to “read” on YouTube in this way if your children enjoy that.)
Knowledge Quest is offering a free St. Patrick’s Day unit study to subscribers here. The five-day study includes the biography of St. Patrick, science and nature activities, a timeline, a lapbook, and more.
Don’t forget to pick up the free St. Patrick’s Day notebooking pages from NotebookingPages.com. These can be used in a variety of ways, from researching to writing book reports or biographies to preparing to give a speech.
St. Patrick’s Day Music and Dance
To enjoy some Irish culture, why not check out some Irish dance from the 1990s? Remember Riverdance and Michael Flatley in Lord of the Dance? Here are the full performances available on YouTube. They are both nearly 2 hours of music and dancing to get you in the mood to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Celtic Woman also performs lovely music. Here is their rendition of “Danny Boy,” a traditional Irish song, and “Amazing Grace.” The bagpipe music is beautiful too!
And, finally, check out Music in Our Homeschool’s Free St. Patrick’s Day 15-Minute Music Lesson, with 4 free printables.
Do you have any other Educational St. Patrick’s Day Ideas to share? Please leave a comment below!
Michelle Habrych is not quite sure of her family’s heritage, though her uncle once told her a story that her family had come to America during the Irish potato famine. That uncle, however, was known to often make up stories. Don’t forget to wear green!
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