Complete Early Childhood St. Patrick’s Day Activities
There’s so many fun and festive activities for St. Patrick’s Day in preschool and all areas of early childhood. Check out all our favorite activities to create the perfect lesson plan for you.
St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Early Childhood
March 17th is right around the corner, so break out the shamrocks, rainbows, and everything green! We’ve put together a full list of math, literacy, science, and art activities, plus more. Come along for our festive celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
Literacy Activities
To start the week (or more!) of fun activities for St. Patrick’s day, I always start with a book. Many young children have never heard of St. Patrick’s Day, leprechauns, green shamrocks, or pots of gold until they read a book about it.
Wonderful St. Patrick’s Day Books
Honestly, St. Patrick’s Day is one holiday that doesn’t have as many children’s books, but there are some good options for all the little learners out there. None of these are affiliate links, we actually just like reading them.
- There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Clover – We like a ton of books in this series because children think they’re so funny. This is a fun way to incorporate clovers, too!
- The Berenstain Bears’ St. Patrick’s Day – This is another series we love to read, and kids do, too!
- Pete the Cat: The Great Leprechaun Chase – If you or your kids are a big fan of Pete the Cat like my grandson, this book is worth it.
- How to Catch a Leprechaun – Here’s a fun book if you want to introduce the idea of catching leprechauns. Then, you can make a pot of gold to build your own leprechaun trap.
- Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Crayons – This is a funny book all about the importance of the color green for St. Patrick’s Day that older preschoolers and kindergartners will like.
- St. Patrick’s Day – If you’re looking for a book about the actual man St. Patrick and what this holiday is all about, try this one.
Begin By Reading
One of my favorite ways to start the week of St. Patrick’s Day is by reading a good book, so I know my children are all aware what this holiday is about. As we read, I keep asking questions about what color is for this holiday, what a leprechaun is, and what other things (like clovers) they keep seeing in books.
Fun Game
Right after reading a book about leprechauns is the perfect time to start our first game- a leprechaun hunt! Before reading the book, hide some little leprechauns around the room for them to find. I printed out pictures of leprechauns, but you can also find little leprechaun dolls.
If you don’t want to use leprechauns, hide some four-leaf clovers or pots of gold around the room to find. For an extra treat, you can even hide those chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil around.
St. Patrick’s Day Math Activities
For this simple shamrock math activity, you’ll need to cut out ten shamrocks on green construction paper. Here’s the free shamrock outline we used. We laminated ours to use again, but that’s optional.
On five of the shamrocks, write the numbers one to five. On the other five, draw dots corresponding with one to five.
Counting
Math skills in early childhood should first focus on counting in order and number identification. If your child is still working on their numbers, first master counting to ten in the correct order. Then, use just the number shamrock cut-outs to work on number identification.
One-to-One Correspondence
Once your child has mastered number identification, you can move on to one-to-one correspondence. This means that as your child counts objects, they assign one, and only one, number to each item in the correct numerical order. For example, if there’s three dots on a page, they would count “one, two, three” while pointing to each dot in turn.
Now, practice this math skill with the dot shamrock cut-outs you made. Encourage your child to physically point to each dot as they count. They may need to see you do it a few times to fully get it.
Math Matching
Lastly, you can use the shamrocks for a math matching game. Help your child match the number shamrocks to the shamrocks with the same number of dots on them.
Science Activity for St. Patrick’s Day
For young children, science looks a little different than how we as adults think of science. But in early childhood, science is all about asking questions and cause-and-effect. And this science activity is all about the color green!
Science experiments in early childhood should focus around a single, simple question such as “What will happen if…” or “How can we…”. Try to focus on a single cause-and-effect question.
What You’ll Need
- Clear plastic cups
- Food coloring (you’ll use yellow and blue, but I have other colors to talk about what not to use)
- Water
- Plastic pipettes
Making the Color Green
For our fun St. Patrick’s Day science project, we asked the question “How do we make the color green?”. Emphasize this question with your child using lots of color words and letting them know you only have blue, yellow, and red – not green.
Set up at least three cups with water. We filled them between one third and halfway full. For young children, you may want to place the cups on a plastic tray to contain any spills. Then, add a few drops of blue food coloring to one cup and a few drops of yellow to another.
OPTIONAL: For older children, you can set up even more colors for trial and error of making the color green. If you do, make sure they have multiple cups of clear water, so they don’t have to keep mixing in the same one.
Pipetting
Next, have your child pipette a few droppers of yellow water into the plain water cup. Then, add one dropper of blue water to make green! Children will have so much fun as they continue to mix the colors and make different shades of green.
If your child has never used a pipette, practice sucking up and transferring to an empty cup using regular, plain water first. This pinching activity is a great way to build fine motor skills and coordination.
Shamrock Art Project
Our favorite St. Patrick’s Day crafts involve festive colors and shapes, like this simple shamrock craft! This one can be done using the traditional green or all the colors of the rainbow.
The best part about this St. Patrick’s Day craft is that there’s really no way to mess it up. That makes it perfect for even the littlest hands! But kids of all ages will enjoy making this fun craft.
Check out the full instructions and variations here.
Sensory Play for St. Patrick’s Day
Create this simple and engaging green themed sensory bin for a festive way to play while building fine motor skills. Let your child search for gold coins, find hidden little leprechauns, or just practice pouring with little pots of gold. As a preschool teacher, I always include at least one form of messy play in my lesson plans.
Find the full instructions here! You can also start with our how-to guide if your child is just starting with sensory bins as a great way to teach them how to use the bins and minimize the mess.
More Sensory Activities
If you don’t want to make the sensory bin, or you want more hands-on activities, try play dough! Grab some green play dough and fun add in items like plastic gold coins, pots of gold, and shamrock shape cookie cutters in different sizes. Your local dollar store or Hobby Lobby usually has tons of options that are pretty affordable.
We love using play dough as a learning tool because children love it. But there’s also tons of benefits you can read about here!
Early Childhood Books for St. Patrick’s Day
| Age/Stage | Best Book Choice | Why It Works |
| 2-3 Years (Toddlers) | There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover | Repetitive text and humor hold short attention spans |
| 3-4 Years (Young Preschool) | The Berenstain Bears’ St. Patrick’s Day | Familiar characters introduce new holiday concepts |
| 4-5 Years (Pre-K) | How to Catch a Leprechaun | Problem-solving plot engages developing reasoning skills |
| 5-6 Years (Kindergarten) | Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Crayons | Humor and longer narrative suit advanced comprehension |
Common Questions
What if my child doesn’t know any numbers yet—can they still do the shamrock math activity?
Absolutely! Start by using only the shamrocks with dots and practice counting out loud together while touching each dot. Skip the number recognition part entirely until your child masters verbal counting to ten in the correct order. Once they can reliably count objects, introduce the numbered shamrocks one at a time, starting with the number one.
Can I use regular rice instead of making green rice for the sensory bin?
Yes, regular rice works perfectly fine and saves preparation time. The green color adds to the St. Patrick’s Day theme, but the sensory and fine motor benefits remain the same regardless of color. If you want a festive look without the effort, simply add green pom poms, plastic shamrocks, or green craft gems to plain rice for pops of color without dyeing anything.
My child gets frustrated with the pipette during the color mixing activity—what should I do?
This is completely normal as pipettes require significant hand strength and coordination. Switch to using small plastic measuring cups or spoons for transferring the colored water instead. You can also try turkey basters, which are easier to squeeze, or simply let your child pour directly from small cups. The learning happens in the color mixing, not the specific tool used.
How do I adapt these activities for a mixed-age group with toddlers and preschoolers together?
Set up the same activity with different complexity levels running simultaneously. For the shamrock math activity, give toddlers just three large shamrocks to count while preschoolers work on matching ten smaller shamrocks. During the color mixing, let toddlers freely explore with just two colors while you ask preschoolers prediction questions. This way everyone participates in the same theme but at their developmental level.
Should I correct my child if they make mistakes during these activities, like miscounting the shamrock dots?
Gentle guidance works better than direct correction during play-based learning. If your child counts incorrectly, model the right way by saying “Let me try! One, two, three” while pointing to each dot, then invite them to try again with you. Making mistakes is part of the learning process, and overcorrecting during holiday activities can reduce the joy and engagement that makes these lessons stick.
MOST IMPORTANT INSIGHTS TO REMEMBER
#1 Books come before themed activities because children cannot meaningfully engage with St. Patrick’s Day crafts, games, or lessons when they lack basic understanding of what leprechauns, shamrocks, and the holiday represent.
#2 One-to-one correspondence requires physical pointing as children count each object in sequence, assigning exactly one number to each item, which is the critical bridge between rote counting and true number sense.
#3 Early childhood science focuses on simple cause-and-effect questions like “How do we make green?” rather than complex explanations, with success measured by engagement and observation rather than correct answers.
#4 Sensory bin mess can be reduced when you use containment systems like boot trays or inflatable pools, transforming them from your messiest to one of your most efficient activities.
#5 The progression from counting to number identification to one-to-one correspondence to matching must follow this specific developmental sequence, as each skill builds the foundation required for the next level of mathematical thinking.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Wether you do one or all of these activities, we hope this helps you have a fun St. Patrick’s Day. The easy way to have a fun holiday is to do what works for you without stressing about doing it all!
If you need a pdf of a free shamrock shape outline, check it out here.
