Free St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Lesson Plans

Shake your shamrocks, St. Patrick’s Day is almost here! These free St. Patrick’s Day preschool lesson plans are just what you need.

Here you’ll find literacy, math, art, and science activities for a St. Patrick’s Day preschool theme all bundled up in a tidy and FREE preschool lesson plans download at the end of this post.

Free St. Patrick’s Day Lesson Plans for Preschoolers

leprechaun standing in front of a rainbow with a pot of gold and a clover | free learn at home preschool for a St. Patrick's day theme
Get your free St. Patrick’s Day lesson plans for preschoolers at the end of this post.

St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday that is known to be fun and silly and all about the color green.

Once you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your preschoolers, you know how much they love a good ol’ fashioned leprechaun hunt, the joy of sensory play with vibrant green and gold decor, and the dash out the door as they look for a magical four-leaf clover in the grass and weeds.

If you don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, there’s so much fun to be had with fun arts and crafts, green and gold everything, and of course, rainbows in all their beauty.

Plus, this holiday provides the opportunity to teach children how to feel lucky…lucky to have friends and family and the fortune of being a unique and special child.

This St. Patrick’s Day preschool theme is loaded with 16+ St. Patrick’s Day ideas and activities that are perfect even if you don’t celebrate traditionally.

FAQ About Teaching a St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Theme

How do I introduce St. Patrick’s Day to preschoolers?

St. Patrick’s Day is full of fun traditions and festivities … and a whole lot of magic! Introduce your preschoolers to clever leprechauns, colorful rainbows with a sparkly pot of gold, and of course the search for a lucky shamrock — all while discovering new traditions, colors, shapes and symbols unique to this day.

Why do we wear green on St. Patrick’s Day?

Legend has it that wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns! Leprechauns have a nasty habit of pinching anyone not wearing green so stay safe and dress appropriately! It’s a fun tradition that everyone can participate in.

In reality, the color green represents the beautiful, rolling hills of Ireland’s lush countryside.

What is a shamrock? Why is a four-leaf clover lucky?

A shamrock is a three-leaf clover and the national flower of Ireland. Four leaf clovers are lucky because they are VERY hard to find. They say you can search clover patches for a thousand years and never find one.

The truth is that the four-leaf clover is a rare variation of the common three-leaf clover. You have about a 1 in 5000 chance of finding a four leaf clover. [source]

shamrock background with text lesson plans for preschool themes - St. Patrick's Day | free preschool activities for St. Patrick's day |

Hands-On St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Preschoolers

Take this bold holiday with its fun and silly traditions and engage your preschoolers with some hands-on St. Patrick’s Day fun! From leprechauns to loads of gold, here are some popular activities to keep with your St. Patrick’s Day lesson plans.

Literacy Activities for a St. Patrick’s Day Theme

Rainbow Letters Race to the Top Game – This fun and colorful game will have your preschooler begging to play! Simply print out the game and grab some counters. Invite your preschooler to roll a dice and identify the letter.

The dice have lowercase letters, and the game boards have the uppercase letters. So once the letter on the dice is identified, the uppercase letter must be matched on the game board. Continue until one letter has been rolled so many times that its column is full and has reached the top.

Leprechaun Hat Alphabet Game – Print these alphabet cards. Call out a letter and invite your preschooler to place the leprechaun hat on top of the letter. If your preschooler is overwhelmed by having all 26 letters out, select a handful to focus on at once. After a letter has been identified, it can be set aside. Your preschooler will love playing with leprechauns!

Don’t Forget St. Patrick’s Day Picture Books

One of my favorite ways to improve upon a great preschool theme is to add some thematic picture books. Here is a St. Patrick’s day book list of some of my preschoolers’ favorite books for the holiday.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may earn a small sum if you click through and make a purchase.

SaleBestseller No. 1
SaleBestseller No. 2
SaleBestseller No. 3
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover!
  • Lucille Colandro (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
Bestseller No. 4
The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day
  • Wing, Natasha (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
Bestseller No. 5
St. Patrick’s Day
  • Gibbons, Gail (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
Bestseller No. 6
Dot Markers Activity Book St. Patrick’s Day: Dot…
  • Press, Kindrell Land (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)

Math and Science Activities for a St. Patrick’s Day Theme

Rainbow Counting – Using colorful pom-poms and these rainbow cards, invite your preschooler to count out the correct number of colored pom-poms or rainbow fish crackers. Use jumbo tweezers for even more fine motor practice. This activity helps with color recognition and sorting skills, too!

Over the Rainbow Math Game – This is the perfect game to introduce the concept that adding means to get more and subtracting means to remove. This post offers simple DIY instructions on how to create your own board game using a file folder and other basic supplies found at the dollar store.  Add a few clover/rainbow stickers for more St. Patrick’s Day fun.

St. Patrick’s Day Slime – Grab the glitter in green and gold and whip up this fun play slime. Preschoolers love the texture and process of making slime and getting the chance to play with it! It will keep them entertained for a long time and it’s very festive!

If you’re worried about the mess that slime can make, give your preschooler a golf ball size to start with. Also, use the slime in a large bin rather than a table top and remind your preschooler that the slime has to stay inside the bin while they’re playing.

Playful Learning St. Patrick’s Day Activities

Clothespin Pinching – For this activity, set out a couple of small bowls of fuzzy pom-poms in assorted colors. Encourage your preschooler to use a clothespin to pick up the green pom-poms and place them into one bowl, and sort the rest into the other. This is great for exercising hand muscles and such fun for your little one!

Rainbow Lego Towers – Sort through your preschooler’s Legos or Duplo Blocks together and select only the blocks that are rainbow-colored. Use them to make rainbow towers out of Legos. Perhaps build a rainbow castle, or even a leprechaun trap to catch one of those feisty fellows!

Hidden Letters – Write down your preschooler’s name on white paper with white crayon and invite them to paint over the area in rainbow colors of watercolor paint, or color over it with markers. Their name will magically appear because the watercolors will resist the white wax from the crayon.

This is a “magical” St. Patrick’s Day activity that is extra fitting for the holiday.

Snipped Yarn Rainbow Craft – Using a variety of colored yarn, paper plates, and cotton balls, these rainbows are a true work of art. They are simple to put together and they turn out so unique and special just like your preschooler.

lesson plan example in the background with a leprechaun and pot of gold on top | free St. Patrick's day preschool activities |
Get free preschool lesson plans for St. Patrick’s Day at the end of this post.

Social-Emotional Activities for a St. Patrick’s Day Theme

“It’s All Good” – Go to YouTube and listen to the book How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow by Monica Sweeney. After listening, chat with your preschooler about how the Sun and the Clouds had a big fight. How did that big fight affect the Earth and everyone on it?

Sometimes our disagreements can affect those we love, so it’s important to find ways to solve our conflicts. Come up with some problem-solving drawings together, such as: ignoring the annoying behavior; saying, “I don’t like when you ___”; or walking away to do something else until you feel calm enough to talk it over.


Lucky to Be Me! – During the holiday of St. Patrick’s Day, we often talk about luck and fortune. This is the perfect time to help your preschooler recognize all the things that they have to be grateful for. Using a piece of paper, help them draw a St. Patrick’s day theme (rainbows, a pot of gold, clovers, etc.) and draw/write other examples of the things and people in their life that they are thankful for and appreciative of.

examples of the printable lesson plans in the background with a leprechaun and a rainbow | free learn at home preschool for a St. Patrick's day theme |
These are low-prep and simple preschool activities for St. Patrick’s Day.

Just Plain Fun Activities for a St. Patrick’s Day Theme

Eat the Rainbow – Practice good nutrition and smart eating habits with this clever nutrition activity. Print out the color-coded list and check off each one after eating something with that color. Or use it to go shopping at the grocery store and get your little one involved with picking out their own colorful variety. You’ll likely get your preschooler to eat more fruits and vegetables with this fun list!

Lucky Shamrock Playdough – Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with some green playdough and make your very own lucky clover. Add sequins, buttons, pipe cleaners, gold coins, etc, and give it the Luck of the Irish! Don’t forget shamrock cookie cutters, too.

Rainbow Spiral – Paint a paper plate with rainbow colors. Assist your preschooler to help keep the colors separated as you paint instead of mixing them on the plate. After it’s dry, use a marker to draw a spiral shape on the plate, then cut out along the spiral line. Even better if both sides are painted! Hang from string and watch it twist and turn!

Make Any Activity St. Patrick’s Day Themed

You know I love a good St. Patrick’s Day theme. Here are some items I keep available for the holiday.

Sale
Zonon 600 Pieces St. Patrick Day Stickers Roll Cute…
  • What you will get: a total of 600 pieces stickers per roll, each with a diameter of 1.5 inches/ 3.8…
  • Durable material: each shamrock label is made of coated paper with good adhesion, which is easy to…
  • Irish party decorations: these cute St. Patrick Day theme stickers are nice for St. Patrick Day…
Spiareal 24 Pcs St. Patrick’s Day Stickers Scene for…
  • St. Patrick’s Day Make a Sticker Scene Set: the package comes with 12 sheets of shamrock shaped make…
  • Exquisite St. Patrick’s Day Design: these makea sticker scene are designed with classic St….
  • Quality Material: these cute shamrock shaped stickers are made of lamilted paper, the St. Patrick’s…
chiazllta 24 Pcs St. Patrick’s Day Craft for Kids St….
  • 【Package Include】For each St. Patrick’s day craft kits, you will receive 24 pieces wreath cards…
  • 【Premium Material】Our paper craft kits are colourful printed for kids, the wreath cards and…
  • 【Enjoy DIY Fun】Play St. Patrick’s day craft kits activities can stimulate kid’s creativity,…
Fruidles St. Patrick’s Day Chocolate Coins Lucky Gold…
  • St. Patrick’s Chocolate Gold Coins: These Chocolate Milk Chocolate Gold Coins which are Made with…
  • Party Favor: Unwrap these Chocolate Coins during all your special events and celebrations. A sweet…
  • These High-Quality Premium Gold Coins Chocolate are made with the sweetest, smoothest gourmet Milk…
Gejoy 200 PCS St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Coins 3-Leaf…
  • Amount of quantity: package includes 200 pieces St. Patrick’s Day plastic shamrock coins in 2…
  • Shamrock coins: each coin is embossed with 3-leaf clover patterns and “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”…
  • Shamrock drawstring bag: this bag has green shamrock design on the front side, which are classic…

Get Online Activities for a St. Patrick’s Day Theme

Leprechaun Story – Go to YouTube and listen to the story How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace. After reading, help your preschooler design the perfect trap. Perhaps they want to draw it out or grab a box from their room. What important features must you think of when trying to catch a leprechaun? What fun items will they include in their leprechaun trap to entice a catch?


I’m a Little Leprechaun – Listen and sing along to this adorable song to the tune of I’m a Little Teapot. Perhaps you’ll find the leprechaun’s pot of gold?


Exercise and Learn the Colors of the Rainbow – Get up and exercise those bodies! Learn the colors in the rainbow as you groove along.

Get Your Free St. Patrick’s Day Lesson Plans Here

Think your preschoolers will enjoy these St. Patrick’s Day activities? Then add them to your lesson plans. Just click the image below.

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