St. Patrick's Day Fourth Grade Activities
- Leprechauns are synonymous with St. Patrick's Day.leprechaun with a walking stick image by Maria Bell from Fotolia.com
The enchantment kids have towards St. Patrick's Day is usually due to their fascination with the iconic leprechauns of Irish folklore. With all of the fantasy and magic that comes with such a holiday, your fourth grade students will certainly enjoy the activities you'll present to them on the festive day. - During the children's P.E. time, you can incorporate a bit of Irish fun to make their exercise a little more exciting. Gather the children in a circle and turn on some Irish music. Tell them to try to dance like a leprechaun---or how they'd imagine a leprechaun to dance. Arrange a few green mats (in the shape of four-leaf clovers, if you have the time) around the floor, enough for each student. During the game, you will turn the music on and off, and whenever the music stops, the children have to stop dancing and find a mat to sit on. Whoever does not find a mat after you turn off the music has to sit the rest of the game out. Each round, take away a green mat. The last person left wins the game.
- A variation on the game, "Doggy Doggy, Where's Your Bone," this game operates much the same way. Before the game starts, cut out a green clover shape from a piece of construction paper. Assemble the children in a circle and pick one child to be the leprechaun, and sit him in the middle of the circle. After he closes his eyes, give the four leaf clover to a student in the circle and have her put it behind her back. Tell the leprechaun to close his eyes and say to him, all together "Leprechaun, Leprechaun, Where's Your Shamrock---Somebody has it in their pocket." The leprechaun then has three guesses to figure out who took the shamrock. If he does not guess correctly, he has to continue being the Leprechaun until he does.
- Before class starts on St. Patrick's Day, find some fun information on the holiday, such as why it is celebrated, as well as the history of Ireland. Put one piece of information on a card for each student. When the students come in for the day, give them one card each and some art supplies. Their task is to represent the piece of information you gave them in a picture they'll design with the art supplies. Each student then has to come up to the front of the class and give a short presentation of their work and explain the piece of history they were given. At the end of the class, you can then quiz the students on how well they remembered what their classmates presented by asking them questions about each fact you gave them. Whoever remembered the most facts wins the game and gets a few chocolate gold coins.
