I’ve always loved celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with kids … and learning about Irish culture at the same time. I have lots of fun, hands-on St. Patrick’s Day activities for you today. I also have a new Montessori-inspired St. Patrick’s Day pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori Shelves with St. Patrick’s Day Themed Activities
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Montessori Shelves with St. Patrick’s Day Themed Activities
You’ll find Montessori-inspired St. Patrick’s Day numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
You could mix your St. Patrick’s Day themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special St. Patrick’s Day themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.
Montessori Book Basket and Shelves with St Patrick’s Day Themed Activities
Even though I have books on shelves, I keep many books for our current theme in a book basket by the themed shelf. You’ll find a few of the books I’ve used here. For toddlers and preschoolers, at least ¾ of the books I use are Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles).
Notice the framed art print of Irish Landscape (1913) by Robert Henri. It’s a free download from Wikiart. Even though Robert Henri was an American realist painter, he has a fascinating history with Ireland. You can read about Robert Henri and see more of his Irish paintings in this article on “Robert Henri in Ireland.”
For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!
If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.
Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers
I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs.
St. Patrick’s Day Books with Irish Landscape Matching Color Shades
St. Patrick’s Day Books with Irish Landscape (Art Print) by Robert Henri and Montessori Color Box 3
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is a brand new book. It’s recommended for a ages 6-9 and has lots of information about St. Patrick’s Day traditions along with activities to celebrate the day.
St. Patrick’s Day for ages 4-8 is by Gail Gibbons. I often use her books for our units because they give lots of information in an easily understood form.
I made a small version of the art print linked to earlier for matching color shades using Montessori color box 3. You can use a printable version or DIY version of color box 3 if you wish.
Montessori Color Shade Matching with Irish Landscape (Art Print) by Robert Henri
Ireland Books, Bookmaking Tray, and 3-Part Cards
Ireland Books, Bookmaking Tray, and 3-Part Cards
Follow Me Around Ireland has lots of information about Ireland for ages 8-9. It can easily be adapted for younger children as well.
This is Ireland is a fun classic book from 1964 that’s been reprinted with updates in the back of the book.
Free Printable: Ireland Mini Book from 123 Homeschool 4 Me is the printable you can see on the tray.
I also have two other free printables available for making other booklets:
Free Printable: St. Patrick’s Day Reader from Clever Classroom at Teachers Pay Teachers
Free Printable: Legend of St. Patrick Printable Booklet from Teaching Mama
You can find the free Places to Visit in Ireland 3-part cards by going to Every Star Is Different and clicking on Free Printables at the top of the page and then Holiday Activities and Free Printables. You’ll find a few St. Patrick’s Day posts. The 3-part cards are from the Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Unit.
Salt Writing Tray for a St. Patrick’s Day Unit
St Patrick’s Day Salt Writing Tray with H for Hat Sandpaper Letter and Font Card
Free Printable: hat letter h for salt writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).
You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.
I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words. I added small parts from some St. Patrick’s Day confetti to the green salt for extra interest.
If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.
Matching Sandpaper Letters with Lucky Horseshoe Alphabet Cards
Matching Lucky Horseshoe Alphabet Cards to Sandpaper Letters
Free Printable: Lucky horseshoe alphabet cards in manuscript and cursive (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
My almost-3-year-old grandson, Caleb, has been obsessed with working with letters and letter sounds, so he already knows his phonetic sounds. I like to find various ways to reinforce them. Here, he’s working with his mom, Chrissy, on matching the horseshoe alphabet cards to sandpaper letters. He also traced each sandpaper letter. I don’t introduce phonetic sounds in alphabetical order, but we focus on it once the child knows all the phonetic sounds well.
The sandpaper letters that I use are available in print or cursive.
Sh Phonogram Materials for a St. Patrick’s Day Unit
Sh for Shamrock Phonogram Work
Free Printable: shamrock phonogram sh cards for salt writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).
Free Printable: Sh Sound with Letters from MontessoriSoul You’ll find other free sh materials there as well.
I used these with double sandpaper letters, which are available in print or cursive.
I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children.
St. Patrick’s Day Pot of Gold Counting Activity
Tray with St Patrick’s Day Pot of Gold Counting Activity
Free Printable: Pot of gold math cards 1-10 (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).
Free Printable: Math Spinner 1-10 (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).
All my grandkids love the little pot o gold kettles and gold coins that I found on Amazon. I ended up using them for more than one activity because they were so popular!
Counting Gold Coins into a Pot of Gold
For this activity, my 3-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, used the spinner to choose a number. Then she matched the sandpaper number with the appropriate pot of gold number card and counted the coins into one of the pots.
St. Patrick’s Day Multiplication Activity
Free Printable: DIY Multiplication “Bead” Board with Booklet by Kristina Prozesky at Teachers Pay Teachers. If your budget (or available space) makes a wooden multiplication board impractical, I think this printable is an awesome alternative. I showed it in our Black history unit as well. You could use it with a variety of small objects (such as the shamrock confetti) or simply use it with pony beads.
We’ve expanded our math cards to go from 0-30 (rather than 0-20) to make it easier for beginning multiplication and division activities. There are booklet materials in the free printable if you want to have a multiplication-equation-writing activity.
Montessori St Patrick’s Day Multiplication Two Ways – With a DIY Multiplication Board and Multiplying Gold Coins
Putting Gold Coins in Pot of Gold After Multiplying 3×10
After counting the coins, she puts them into the pot.
More St. Patrick’s Day Activities Using Free Printables
I prepared a few more St. Patrick’s Day activities on the shelf next to my main themed shelf. The activities use these free printables:
Free Printable: European Country Fact Cards from The Pinay Homeschooler for the “Build a flag of Ireland” LEGO activity.
Free Printable: St. Patrick’s Day Hundreds Chart Mystery Picture from Mrs Thompson’s Treasures at Teachers Pay Teachers with colored pom poms (or crayons) for creating the mystery picture.
Note: The book Ten Lucky Leprechauns isn’t a Montessori-style book, but it’s a fun counting book for preschoolers.
Free Printable: Where is the Pot of Gold? from Every Star Is Different. going to Every Star Is Different and clicking on Free Printables at the top of the page and then Holiday Activities and Free Printables. You’ll find a few St. Patrick’s Day posts. The 3-part cards are from the St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Tots and Preschoolers post.
The Grimm’s small wooden rainbow has been popular with Sophia and Caleb ever since they were babies! For this activity, I removed the bottom purple piece.
Montessori Shelf with St. Patrick’s Day Books and Little Passports Ireland Activities
On the opposite side of the room from our featured shelf is another shelf where I often keep themed books and sometimes another themed activity. Hooray for St. Patrick’s Day is a fun lift-the-flap book with a leprechaun hidden on each page. St. Patrick’s Day by Anne Rockwell is an interesting story of a classroom with multicultural children learning about Irish culture and St. Patrick’s Day.
The Little Passports Ireland activities are from the 2nd year subscription of the World Edition. My Little Passports materials are from a few years ago, so some of them may have changed since then. The Little Passports activities are a fun way to encourage geography at home! You can see a list of all my Little Passports posts here.
Free St. Patrick’s Day Hat Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Phonics Instant Download)
Free St. Patrick’s Day Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
Free Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Pack
Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).
More St. Patrick’s Day Resources
Amazon Affiliate
- Free St. Patrick’s Day Hat Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Phonics Instant Download)
- Free St. Patrick’s Day Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free St. Patrick’s Day Songs and Rhymes for Circle Time
- Homeschool St. Patrick’s Day
- Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Activities
- Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Math Activities
- 40+ St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Tubs
- St. Patrick’s Day Playdough Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities
- Montessori Color Mixing Activities – Rainbows of Color
- Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}
- Free Eat-a-Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities
- Free St. Patrick’s Day Printables and Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Phonics Activities
- St. Patrick’s Day Cutting Tray with Strings of Beads
- Kids’ St. Patrick’s Day Activities Pinterest Board
If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout February and March, see my February Themed Activities for Kids and March-Themed Activities for Kids.
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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