The leprechaun, a traditional Irish symbol, guards a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Create your own classroom rainbow by cutting a large sheet of butcher paper five feet long. Give students washable hand paints in all colors of the rainbow. Ask them to choose one color and create that section using their hand prints. After all colors of the rainbow are complete, draw a pot of gold at one end of the poster and write "Happy St. Patrick's Day" at the top of the paper. Display this in your classroom.
Potatoes are a traditional Irish food, and you can use these to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in your classroom. Purchase various types and sizes of potatoes and slice them into small sections for your students. Provide students with a blank quarter-fold card to decorate. Use green paint or ink to paint the potatoes and stamp them on the paper to create a St. Patrick's Day card for a friend or family member.
A week before your classroom celebration, send a note home with students inviting them to create an Irish-themed costume. Encourage students to be creative and use household items to create their costumes. On the day of your celebration, award prizes such as most creative or most colorful. Have enough prizes so that all students in your classroom receive some type of award.
Incorporating the study of Ireland into your St. Patrick's Day lesson allows students to make the connection between the holiday and its country of origin. Ask students to create an Irish flag using a plain white piece of felt as the base of the flag. Provide them with a rectangular orange and green piece of felt and glue these to the white base. The green piece should be glued on the left side of the flag and the orange one on the right side. Help students hot-glue a dowel rod to the flag so they can wave the flag while listening to "The Soldier's Song," the Irish national anthem.