St. Patrick's Day Ideas for Teachers

St. Patrick's Day is exactly a month from now! We are counting down to the days. Don't you just love holidays? Holidays are definitely something exciting to look forward to. For now, we are still scoping out for good ideas and tips for you to figure out what you want to do for your celebration.

If you are a teacher, you are in for a treat! We have found classroom ideas from Teacher's Corner for all instructors.

St Patrick's Day Party Activities and Crafts

POT 'O GOLD - Have your students cut small pots out of gold or black construction paper (have cardboard patterns or ready-made die-cut pots available to trace). Have students decorate their pots with gold glitter and coins cut from gold foil! Save these pots to use later for the game described below or decorate classroom with them.

LUCKY CLOVER - Have your students cut clover shapes out of green construction paper (have cardboard patterns or ready-made die-cut clover available to trace). Save these shamrocks to use later for the game described below or decorate classroom with them.

SUGAR COOKIE FUN! - This activity can do double duty - when kids are finished decorating the cookies, they can eat them as a snack! Have a station set up with plenty of sugar cookies cut out in shamrock shapes (if possible - if not, use scalloped or round cookie cutters). On each individual plate, place one cookie and a plastic knife. Provide green and white frosting and sprinkles for decorating.

St Patrick's Day Game Ideas

PIN THE POT ON THE RAINBOW - Paint a rainbow on a piece of poster board or let students paint a rainbow with poster paints. Give each student their construction paper "pot of gold" (made earlier as an activity) to attach. (idea: place velcro on back of each pot) On their turn, blindfold the students, spin them 3 times, point them in the right direction and let them try to "pin" the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

LUCKY TRIVIA - Write trivia questions on the back of shamrocks cut out by students. The questions should be facts about St. Patrick's Day or naming things that are green - depending on age of children. Divide the class into two teams. Place shamrocks in a black kettle (pot). Have students take turns picking a question from the pot. Teams get one point for each question answered correctly. The team with the most points in the end - wins!

POT OF GOLD - Fill a clear container (pot shaped if possible) with gold wrapped candy kisses or other gold wrapped candy. Have each child guess how many pieces of candy are in the container. The student with the closest guess wins the candy!

St Patrick's Day Snack Ideas

SNACK IDEAS - The following snacks are easy to make, and many are simple enough for children to make. Some can do double duty, and work well as table decorations or crafts and then eaten later as a party snack.

LUCKY CLOVER! - Make sandwiches using favorite ingredients and cut out shamrock shapes using shamrock cookie cutters. For a healthier options, cut different foods into shamrock shapes using a variety of sizes! Try melon or cheese.

JELL-O® TREATS - Children always enjoy Jell-O® Jigglers! Cutting green Jell-O® with a shamrock shape cookie cutter is an easy way make a party treat! Or use lemon jello and use circle cutters for gold!

SUGAR COOKIES - This snack can do double duty - as a treat and activity! Use cookies students decorated earlier or bring purchased sugar cookies in St Patricks theme shapes.

IRISH GREEN - Add green food coloring to milk, mashed potatos or any food easliy colored.

Thanksgiving for the classroom!

1. Set the mood: add a fall feeling to your classroom by adding fall leaf arrangements to the teacher's desk, or hanging a fall border around the bulletin boards. Add some orange and brown throw rugs, and a Thanksgiving-themed welcome mat outside your classroom door. Set out some Thanksgiving picture books in the reading corner.
2. Review your Thanksgiving lesson plans. See if you can add in any hands-on, decorative activities to your lessons, such as making hand print turkeys or pilgrim hats. These can then be hung on the classroom bulletin board.
3. Use writing activities to help you decorate. Have the children write what they are thankful for on giant turkey feathers made from orange, yellow and brown construction paper. Then, place the feathers on the wall around a turkey body made from brown butcher paper. Alternately, have them write what they are thankful for on paper maple leaves, and string them together to form a garland. Hang the garland from the top of the white or chalkboard, or over a window.
4. Plan an art lesson. If you can't tie in craft activities to your lesson plans, try to find the time to squeeze in one craft activity just for fun, or make it into an art lesson. For example, a lesson on painting with watercolors can be a good opportunity to make fall leaves. Have the children paint watercolor paper in fall colors, letting the watercolors bleed into each other. Once the paper dries, have the children cut the paper into fall leaf shapes. Glue the leaves onto Thanksgiving place mats, or use them for the writing activity above.
5. Don't forget the outside of your room! Initiate a door-decorating contest with the other teachers. Have each class come up with a Thanksgiving theme for their doors, and then decorate the doors.
6. And...don't forget the desks! Tiny pumpkins can be used to make clever turkeys. Glue craft store feathers onto the pumpkins with a hot glue gun, and glue a construction paper turkey "head" to the stem. Use a permanent marker to write each student's name on the turkey and use them as name tags during the month of November. This can be a project for a parent volunteer or for the children if they are old enough to handle a hot glue gun.

via eHow.