Luck of the Irish to ya! St. Patrick’s Day is a festive holiday that’s full of such fun and unique traditions. If you’re looking for some St. Patrick’s Day activities for preschoolers, here are six printable St. Patrick’s Day activities my preschoolers have been adoring!
Engaging St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Preschoolers
I’ve always wanted to visit Ireland. It’s in my top 5 countries to visit and I swear that I can trace it back to my primary school days learning about leprechauns, pots filled with gold, and the never-ending search for a lucky four-leaf clover…
I can remember sitting in my backyard, leafing through clover after clover in the few green patches of those wild weeds that filled our yard, looking for the elusive magical shamrock.
Unfortunately, I never found one; maybe that’s why Ireland is on my bucket list.
Once I became an early childhood teacher, I couldn’t wait to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with games and activities full of mysterious leprechauns and inviting rainbows.
These St. Patrick’s Day activities for preschoolers certainly bring some Irish fun into math and literacy!
FAQ About Teaching St. Patrick’s Day to Preschoolers
St. Patrick’s Day is one of those holidays that’s really fun to celebrate (because who needs an excuse for a party?), but can be hard to explain to preschoolers. I sometimes just call it “The Green Holiday” or “The Rainbow Holiday.”
Here are some other ways to explain St. Patrick’s Day to preschoolers.
St. Patrick’s Day is full of fun traditions and festivities! Introduce your preschoolers to clever leprechauns, colorful rainbows with their sparkly pots of gold, and of course the search for a lucky shamrock.
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!
A shamrock is a three-leaf clover and the national flower of Ireland. Four leaf clovers are lucky because–since they’re the result of a rare mutation in the plant–they are VERY hard to find. They say you can search clover patches for a thousand years and never find one.
Low-Prep St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Preschoolers
These printable St. Patrick’s Day activities for preschoolers are designed to be low prep and for repeated use. Each activity helps strengthen an important skill like counting, graphing, alphabet recognition, or fine motor skills! They’re ideal for preschool centers, small group work, and even circle time activities for your St. Patrick’s Day theme.
I’m a big fan of laminating these activities to get the most use out of them… after all, your preschoolers are going to love them! Feel free to use some of these St. Patrick’s Day preschool activities with playdough or other handy manipulatives as well!
If you prefer not to laminate but want to use playdough or dry erase markers with activities, we’ve also used dry erase pouches and they work great, too!
Printable St. Patrick’s Day Activity #1 – St. Patrick’s Day Race to the Top
Preschoolers roll the chosen St. Patrick’s Day dice and color in a corresponding square on the graph. This activity helps preschoolers learn simple graphing skills, counting, and turn-taking. This can be done individually, in pairs, or even for small group time.
This activity is such a breeze to prep. Print the graphing pages and the St. Patrick’s Day dice and cut and fold the dice together. Tape it closed to keep it sturdy from little hands. This game can be played over and over!
Printable St. Patrick’s Day Activity #2 – Fill Your Pot of Gold
This game is “golden”! Preschoolers love that they can move around the board in any direction; and, of course, they adore earning gold coins. This St. Patrick’s Day preschool activity helps build counting skills, one-to-one correspondence, and cooperation/turn-taking.
Preschoolers will roll a dice and move the game piece the corresponding number of spaces.
If the player lands on a gold coin, he or she collects one gold coin and adds it to their pot (scorecard).
If the player lands on a pot of gold, they collect the corresponding number of coins as on the pot.
Players can move around the board in any direction.
When the first player fills his or her scorecard, the game is over and you have a winner!
Make St. Patrick’s Day even More Fun!
Using thematic manipulatives for teaching can bring any theme to life for your preschoolers. Here are some manipulatives I use for St. Patrick’s Day.
Printable St. Patrick’s Day Activity #3 – St. Patrick’s Day Pre-Writing Practice
Your preschooler will love helping the leprechaun move the gold to the pot using this pre-writing finger trail activity. Invite your preschooler to count out five gold coins. Using their fingers, a pencil, or a gold coin, encourage them to follow the path to the pot of gold and “deposit” a coin once you’ve reached the end of the path.
These pre-writing cards are perfect for novice writers who are working on building the hand muscles needed to begin tracing with a pencil. This preschool activity is differentiated for the novice or emerging writer!
St. Patrick’s Day Activity #4 – Ten Frame Counting and Addition Board Game
These St. Patrick’s Day ten frame cards are a perfect addition to your holiday math centers! They’re a great way for kids to work on counting, one-to-one correspondence, and even decomposing numbers.
This low-prep St. Patrick’s Day activity can be used with manipulatives or playdough and can even highlight simple addition. Using two different colors of playdough or counters helps your preschooler learn beginning addition – that adding those two color groups together equals the total number.
Don’t Forget St. Patrick’s Day Picture Books!
I love reading stories to my preschoolers, especially for St. Patrick’s Day. Here are my go-to picture books for our favorite green holiday.
St. Patrick’s Day Activity #5 – Rainbow Alphabet Matching
This St. Patrick’s Day activity is perfect for upper and lower case letter matching and recognition. Simply cut apart and offer a few sets at a time, as not to overwhelm. Or play an alphabet memory game by flipping a few sets over and encouraging your preschooler to use their memory to find the match!
These rainbow alphabet puzzles are so fun and can even be hidden around the room and used for a scavenger hunt!
St. Patrick’s Day Activity #6 – “Don’t Let the Leprechaun Steal Your Coins” Letter Identification and Counting Game
Here is a fun St. Patrick’s Day activity that teaches letter and sound identification as well as counting in small quantities. This is another activity that can be done with a partner, in small groups, or even for independent practice. I have used this game for practicing familiar letters as well as for an informal letter knowledge assessment.
Each preschooler starts with a ten frame scorecard that’s filled with ten gold coins and a deck of cards with letters on them. Draw a card and identify the letter name and/or letter sound, and then discard.
But hidden in the deck of letter cards are sneaky, thieving leprechauns, who will steal your gold coins! If a leprechaun card is drawn, the preschooler has to count out the corresponding number of gold coins from their score card and give them to the leprechaun. The game ends when someone loses all their gold coins.
Get Your Printable St. Patrick’s Day Activities Here!
Looking for something to help teach your preschoolers about rainbows, leprechauns, and gold coins…as well as letters and numbers?! This St. Patrick’s Day Activity Pack includes six super fun activities and multiple variations of each!
These printable St. Patrick’s Day activities are designed to be used again and again, and your preschooler will definitely want to do them more than once!
Grab You Copy by Clicking the Image or Link Below.
>>> St. Patrick’s Day Activity Pack <<<
Even More St. Patrick’s Day Picture Books!
High-quality picture books can certainly bring St. Patrick’s Day to life! Check out my book list of great pictures books for your St. Patrick’s Day theme for preschoolers.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
