Easy St. Patrick’s Day Math Activities

At our house, we call St. Patrick’s Day the “green holiday”, where we celebrate all things the color green.  William loves the color green.  He wants green pancakes and eggs on Sundays and green oatmeal the rest of the week.  He insists on having a green sippy cup, not blue or red or purple.  His bedspread is green as well as his favorite T-shirts, no matter the image on the front.  William thinks it would be a good idea to paint our already greyish green house a brighter shade of green.  “That would make a nice project when it is summertime,” he says.  William loves the color green and thinks about it often, which makes us very lucky in March since we get to celebrate the greeness of St. Patrick’s Day!

Today’s post will feature seven St. Patrick’s Day math activities, as well as the phonemic awareness and phonics activities in Preschool Co-op week 20.  Be sure to check out other ideas on my Pinterest board, and keep in touch through Facebook, or via E-mail subscription for the latest posts and ideas.

 

Pot O’ Gold Counting : One to One Correspondence – Use a basic pot template to cut out several pots (of gold) out of black foam.  I did 15, because I am working with William counting better into his teens.  Label each one with numerals leading up to the target number using a white paint marker.  (For a more tactile aspect you can also use white drying liquid glue).  Invite your child to count out the corresponding number of gold coins for each numeral.

 

Sorting Shamrocks : Algebra – Use a basic shamrock template to cut out various sizes of shamrocks from felt.  I chose five sizes in three different colors.  Invite your child to sort the shamrocks by color.

*** This activity can be extended into a measurement activity, as seen further below. ***

 

Sorting Shamrocks : Algebra – I found some cute shamrock fabric at a discounted price and thought they’d be perfect for a sorting activity.  I cut out several shamrocks and laminated them.  Since all the shamrocks are green, William was challenged to sort them by their pattern.  And having two sets being light green, and two sets being dark green, differentiating the patterns was much more difficult than simply sorting various colored shamrocks.  These shamrocks also come in various sizes, (although very close in size), so I could also have William disregard the color and pattern all together and sort by size.

 

Graphing : Data Analysis and Probability – Sorting activities are always a great lead into graphing, which is how we used the above activity.  Don’t forget that discussion is an important learning feature in graphing.  Invite your child to tell you what he sees in the graph.  Which kind of shamrock has the most, or the least.

*** These shamrocks also make great holiday themes manipulatives to practice patterning as well! ***

Sequencing Shamrocks : Measurement – Using shamrocks of various sizes cut from felt, invite your child to sequence them from largest to smallest, or visa vera.  If your preschooler is on the younger side, it may be more appropriate to start with only three sizes and work you way up to five or more.  This activity can be adapted to even young toddlers and you help your little one identify big and small.

Patterning and Sequencing Shamrocks : Algebra and Measurement – Setting aside any shamrocks that did not fit in a set, I invited William to pattern and sequence the given shamrocks by stacking them atop one another.  This proved to be difficult at first, but after a bit of practice, William began showing some mastery within the given task.  For an added challenge, I gave William the shamrocks from all three sets of colors, as asked that he make three stacking patterns that also showed sequencing.  Another good challenge!

Estimating Gold Coins : Data Analysis and Probability – This was a new activity for William.  Cut a basic pot shape from felt, keeping a fold at the bottom.  Then, hot glue the sides together to make a pocket.  Hot glue a question mark on the front.  Then, secretly place a few gold coins in the pocket.

Invite your child to place his hand in the pocket and count the number of coins he feels.  Of course this is meant to be done without peeking, but William can never help himself!

 

Reading in Preschool Co-op

This is week 20, which means review for the kiddies.  In phonemic awareness, students practiced rhyming and phoneme isolation.  In phonics, they reviewed each letter, chanting rhymes and singing the alphabet song.  Students have also been getting a lot of word work in by doing activities with the letters in their names and also practicing more basic decoding and picture sorting.

Next Week:

As well as featuring phonemic awareness and phonics activities from Preschool Co-op, I will also be sharing several easy to prepare St. Patrick’s Day themed literacy activities!

Enjoy!