Kindergarten and Preschool Learning Center Ideas for St. Patrick's Day

Filled with luck, treasure, and mischief, St. Patrick's Day is equally appealing to young girls and boys alike. Teach your students about the culture of St. Patrick's Day with these theme centers that are appropriate for kindergarten and preschool but can also be adapted to homeschool settings.

Leprechaun Class Book

Have each student illustrate and provide the words for one page of a class book. Their page should start with their name and tell where they hid their treasure, using a different preposition in their sentence (on, under, behind, next to, between, etc... are examples of prepositions). A sample sentence would be: Jack the leprechaun hid his treasure between the rosebushes.

Color Changing Carnation
Put a white carnation in a vase filled with water that has been dyed green. Ask you class what they think will happen to the flower. Over the next few days, observe what happens to the carnation and write down the classes observations for each day on a large piece of paper. You can also give students a "journal" with pictures of flowers in vases that they can color each day to show the changes. After a few days, ask the class why they think the Carnation changed colors. (Science: recording observations and hypotheses, plant science)

Shamrock Print Greeting Cards

Cut out sponges into small heart shapes and let students dip the sponges into green paint and make shamrocks by printing the hearts into sets of three and four. They can then add a stem with a stripe of green paint. Sprinkle the finished card with gold glitter before the paint dries. On the inside of the card they can add a Saint Patrick's Day message.

Golden Bracelets
Give students gold chenille stems and an assortment of various shaped gold beads and charms to choose from. Have them thread a few beads onto the stems and then form the stems into bracelets.

Shamrock Pin Making

Find small wood cutouts in the shape of a shamrock at a craft store. Give each child a shamrock to decorate with paint, glitter, and stickers. Attach a safety pin to the back to create their own St. Patrick's day pin.

Recycled Rainbow Color Crayon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Let students choose several old crayons, peel the paper off of them, and break them into pieces. Have each student put his or her pieces in one section of a muffin tin that has been lined with foil sprayed with vegetable spray. Bake until crayons are completely melted and them cool until the crayons are hardened, several hours or overnight. The crayons will melt into a cool swirly pattern. Remove the new crayons and let students color with their new multi colored rainbow colored crayon.

Shamrock Cookie Decorating

Use a shamrock shaped cookie cutter to cut out shamrock shapes from sugar cookie dough and bake according to the recipe's directions. Meanwhile mix up several shades of green icing. Let your child ice the cookies. Provide green sprinkles, St. Patrick's day candies, such as M&Ms, and St. Patrick's Day sprinkles to decorate.

Rainbow Kabobs Snack

For a fun St. Patrick's Day snack, and to reinforce the color order of the rainbow, give each student a red strawberry, a piece of orange, a yellow piece of pineapple, a green piece of honeydew melon, a large blueberry, a purple grape, and a kebob stick. Help them put their fruit on the kabob stick in the color order of the rainbow. If you want, give each student a small cup (pot) of lemon yogurt to dip their fruit in.

More Preschool Lesson Plans by Theme:

Ant Lesson Plan

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Dinosaur Lesson Plan

Hawaii Lesson Plan

Jungle Lesson Plan

Outer Space Lesson Plan

Penguin Lesson Plan

Reptile Lesson Plan

Snow and Ice Lesson Plan

Western Lesson Plan

Wind Lesson Plan