Celebrating St Patrick’s Day at School
It’s time to get into the spirit of the Irish, because it’s St Patrick’s Day! Celebrating St Patrick’s Day at school is a great opportunity to break up the routine and do some out of the ordinary activities with your cherubs.
Before we get into the fun activities, let’s first take a look at the history of St Patrick’s Day. The day is marked to celebrate the work of St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. St Patrick was kidnapped from Roman Britain when he was just 16 years old and was taken to Ireland to be a slave. Once he escaped slavery, he introduced Christianity to Ireland, establishing churches and schools in the nation. While the day has religious links, it is mostly now celebrated as day of Irish patriotism. The Irish use it as an opportunity to dress in green and maybe enjoy a Guinness or two.
There is an abundance of themed activities for celebrating St Patrick’s Day at school. Here is some inspiration for your subject.
Food Technology
It’s always very easy to come up with activities for celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Food Technology classes. You could cook up some green-coloured foods during your lessons, but we’ve all cooked green-frosted cakes and cookies for St Patrick’s Day before so why not change it up this year? Try making green smoothies instead. Not only are green smoothies easy to make, they give the students a vitamin boost. Add ingredients such as spinach, kale, avocado or celery to your favourite smoothie recipe to turn it green. This is also a quick and easy recipe to whip up if you don’t have time for a whole lesson prac.
English
Have your English students do some St Patrick’s Day themed writing. You could ask them to write a narrative by giving them a starter paragraph or ask them to include key characters and objects such as leprechauns, four leaf clovers or rainbows. If narratives aren’t what you’d like your class to be writing, you could ask them to write something factual by providing them with a writing prompt using the key terms discuss, explain or describe. Some great inspiration for St Patrick’s Day writing starters can be found here.
Art
Art teachers, get your cherubs in the spirit of Irish art! Consider making some rainbow-themed art. You could make a rainbow collage with scrap paper or old newspapers and magazines and even have them include a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Once completed, these rainbow artworks will look stunning on your classroom walls and bring a bit of colour to your future lessons.
P.E.
Get the cherubs to learn an Irish jig during their practicals. Not only will it get their hearts pumping, it is bound to get a laugh out of you and the students. Of course, an Irish jig probably isn’t something you’ll know off the top of your head, but there are plenty of tutorials online. You can pick something that works for your students’ abilities and the time you have available.
History
Have your History students investigate the origins of St Patrick’s Day and how some of today’s celebrations came about. This activity is a great way for the students to develop a greater understanding about the day and a better appreciation for how and why we celebrate it.
Textiles
Take a look at these super simple felt shamrock plushies! They are the perfect little St Patrick’s Day project for your Textiles cherubs. And what is best about these plushies is they can easily be completed in one lesson. If you think your students may still be stretched for time, consider having the felt shamrocks already cut out ready for your students to sew and stuff.
Never fear if there aren’t any obvious St Patrick’s Day activities for your subject, particularly if it is heavy on the theory. If this is the case, consider giving your classroom an Irish themed makeover. For example, you could hang four leaf clover chains around the room for the day. This can help to break up the cherubs’ routines and could even boost their engagement for the day.
We hope these activities will help you in celebrating St Patrick’s Day at school and create some Irish fun for the day!
