Preschool St. Patrick's Day Theme

Discover a variety of preschool St. Patrick’s Day themed activities that explore the color green, gold, shamrocks, and leprechaun fun. This page is packed with learning objectives and engaging, hands-on ideas for small group, whole group, and independent learning centers to support your early childhood program. Use the buttons below to quickly navigate to each section!

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Quick Links to Key Resources

Theme Planning

Activities

Resources

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Preschool St. Patrick's Day Theme Planning  Section

Below, you'll find our Theme Map outlining key topics to explore, suggested learning objectives to guide your lessons, and a free activity plan to help you get started. Club Members can download our St. Patrick's Day theme planning guide and all of our printable resources and instruction pages for free inside our Activity Library! Not a member? Learn More Here

Preschool St. Patrick's Day Topic Ideas & Learning Objectives

Here are some suggested preschool learning objectives for a St. Patrick's Day theme:
Language & Literacy

• Use new vocabulary related to St. Patrick’s Day (e.g., leprechaun, rainbow, shamrock, gold, Ireland).
• Listen to and retell simple St. Patrick’s Day stories.
• Follow multi-step directions during themed activities and games.
• Recognize and identify letters in themed words (e.g., "L is for Leprechaun").

Math & Cognitive Development

• Sort, count, and pattern with gold coins, shamrocks, or rainbow-colored objects.
• Match objects by color, shape, or size during themed sorting games.
• Practice one-to-one correspondence through counting games and manipulatives.
• Explore basic positional words (e.g., under the rainbow, next to the pot of gold).

Fine Motor Skills

• Strengthen hand muscles with themed crafts like cutting shamrocks, threading rainbows, or squeezing glue bottles.
• Use tweezers, tongs, or fingers to pick up small items like beads or coins in sensory bins.
• Practice tracing or writing letters using green, gold, or rainbow writing tools.

Creative Arts

• Create St. Patrick’s Day-themed crafts (rainbows, leprechaun traps, hats, shamrock stamping).
• Participate in music and movement activities using Irish songs or jigs.
• Explore sensory bins with green rice, gold coins, or shamrock confetti.

Social-Emotional Development

• Work cooperatively in group games or during collaborative craft projects.
• Express feelings and preferences during group discussions (e.g., favorite color in the rainbow).
• Take turns and share materials during themed center activities.

Science & Nature

• Explore the colors of the rainbow and simple color mixing.
• Discuss real vs. pretend (e.g., are leprechauns real?).
• Observe nature-themed elements like clovers and rainbows through books or nature walks.

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St. Patrick's Day Preschool Activity Plan

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St. Patrick's Day Preschool Activities

Below you will find some of our favorite activities for this theme. Click on a button below to find specific activities by type, or visit our free Preschool Activity Library to find even MORE Preschool Activities for this theme! Use the yellow arrow to return to the top!

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Be sure to add plenty of "Green" to your Art Space this week. Consider adding different shades of Green Crayons, Markers, Paper and Paint to your free art shelves.

*Leprechaun Craft Project

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with your preschooler with this fun leprechaun craft. This craft is easy to assemble and uses common craft materials found at your local craft store. 

Try this!

Marble Painting Shamrocks

All you need for this great St. Patrick's Day activity is a box or container, a few marbles, some paint, and a paper shamrock. Place the paper shamrock in the box and add a few drops of paint in the corner of the container with the marbles. Have the student slowly move the box around to manipulate the marbles to paint their shamrock.

Shamrock Craft

Cut a paper tube in small circles, manipulate to form a heart shape. Paint and glue together to create a shamrock.

More Ideas:

​ Shamrock Print from Blessed Beyond a Doubt

​Leprechaun Mask by Crafty Mama in Me

​Toilet Paper Roll Leprechaun Crafts from the Resourceful Mama

​St. Patrick's Day Play Dough from Clare's Little Tots

​Make a Leprechaun Trap from Little Bins for Little Hands

​Marble Painted Shamrocks from Plain Vanilla Mom

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*Decorate the housekeeping space for St. Patrick's Day

Add a box of St. Patrick's Day Decorations and let the Children decorate their own space.

Our reader Laurie P. of Pitter Patter Dayhome added several St. Patrick's Day inspired
dress up items to her Dramatic Play Space. 

Pot of Gold Play

Add Cauldrons and pretend  "Gold" to your space for your Leprechauns to find.

*Green Dress-Up

Dress from head to toe in green! Set out a variety of green dress up items for your students to dress up in.

Gold Dress-Up

Preschoolers love all things gold! Use this opportunity to break out fun gold costumes and accessories for preschoolers to enjoy. 

​More Ideas:

​St. Patrick's Day Role Playing fun from Inner Child Fun

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*Add St. Patrick's Day inspiration to your space

Let's turn the Construction area Green this week. Swap out your blocks for all green building options. You can add a variety of Gold, and Leprechauns to this space as well. 

*Build Coin Towers

Building  towers the St. Patrick's Day way by using gold coins or pennies. This exciting activity is also great for building small motor, engagement and persistence.

Invitation to Build Shamrocks

Set out green felt hearts and green pipe cleaner stems along with examples of real photo images of shamrocks. Encourage children to build shamrocks from the materials provided.

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*First Sounds Clip Cards

Practice phonics with this hands-on activity!
This activity is easy to set up: print the desired cards, cut, laminate (optional for durability), and place on a tray with some clothes pins. This activity is ​included in our St. Patrick's Day Activity Pack

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*Shamrock and Gold Upper/Lower case
Letter Matching

Match the St. Patrick's Day Uppercase letters to the lowercase letters, included in our St Patrick's Day Activity Pack

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*If I caught a Leprechaun...

For this writing activity have your students answer "What they would do if they caught a Leprechaun"
and scribe their story.

*What do you spy that's green?

Play I Spy with a St. Patrick's Day twist! Spot the items  around the room that are green!

Letter Treasures

Children can form the letter their name begins with using play dough, then fill the letters with "silver nuggets" (aluminum foil)

Green Cloud Dough Writing

Make some green cloud dough for preschoolers to practice drawing shamrocks, other shapes and writing letters. 

What Is St. Patrick's Day? by Elaine Landau
St. Patrick's Day by Dorothy Goeller
Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola
Happy St. Patrick's Day by Roger Priddy
Pete the Cat: The Great Leprechaun Chase by James Dean
I Spy With My Little Eye St. Patrick's Day Edition by Passion Kids
The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day by Natasha Wing

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*St. Patrick's Day Patterning and Sorting​

Support math skills with this hands-on patterning activity. 
This activity is easy to set up! Simply print and set out for play or transform into a file folder activity. 
**Optional: Laminate the mat and pieces for durability and use over and over! You could also set this out as a cut and paste activity. 
This printable activity is ​included in the PKPF St. Patrick's Day Activity Pack

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*St. Patrick's Day Counting Cards Freebie

Pair these free number cards with your favorite St. Patrick's Day math counters to support your preschooler's math development. 
This freebie can be found on my blog post Free St. Patrick's Day Counting Cards

Get this freebie!

*How Many Shamrocks can You fit in your hand?

Have students count how many shamrocks they can fit in their hand.
You can extend the learning by graphing your classes results.

Pot of Gold Counting

Using a gold permanent marker, write numbers on mini pots of gold. Add the correct amount of gold coins, or coin candy to each pot.

Counting Clover Leaves

Go outside to find a lucky clover. Count the leaves.

Order shades of green

Practice sorting and classification by ordering shades of green! 

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Light Table Rainbow

Invitation to build rainbows on the light table from reader Laurie P. of Pitter Patter Dayhome

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin Ideas

Add all kinds of fun textures and interesting St. Patrick's themed items to your sensory table this week.  Some ideas: Green Crinkle Paper Shreds, Gold Coins , Rainbow Jello, Dried Peas, Foam 4 leaf clovers, Rainbow/Green Died Rice, Green Milk Caps, Rainbow/Green Dyed noodles, or Green Pom-Poms
​Here are some inspirational photos from our community members

​St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin from  Community Member Melanie P.

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin from Laurie P. of Pitter Patter Dayhome

Gold Slime

Make your own Gold slime! 
You can create a green or gold slime, or clear with  gold and green chunky glitter for something special!

*Leprechaun Trap Building Challenge

This is always a fun project for St. Patrick's Day. Have student's individually or in groups create and decorate their Leprechaun Trap. While students are out of the room you can set off their traps and leave little gifts behind for a treat.
See our suggestions for this activity on my blog.

Try this!

Green and Gold Sensory Sort

This invitation is simple yet a powerful sensory experience that will keep preschoolers engaged. Cut up yellow and green sponges, add to a container of water. Children can sort the "shamrocks" and "gold" sponges into different containers.

Horseshoe Magnet Experiment

Provide horseshoe magnets along with large fender washers, coins, and a variety of other similar objects. Children can test and sort based on whether each object is magnetic.

Which Animals eat clover?

Engage your preschoolers in a discussion about what type of animals might eat clover. Follow-up with some research!

More Ideas:

Magic Leprechaun Rocks by Gift of Curiosity
Gold Sparkle Slime by Little Bins for Little Hands
Grow 4-leaf clovers from Chica and Jo

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*Clover Shape Leaf Cards

Work on finger strength, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination while practicing shape recognition with these cute Clover Shape Leaf Cards included in our St. Patrick's Day Activity Pack

Buy this in our shop!

*Outdoor Coin Hunt

Gather some gold coins to create a treasure hunt outside.  Be sure to hide the coins high and low to promote whole body movement. 

*Flip coins into a pot of gold

Using your thumbs or pointer fingers to flip coins into a pot of gold.
This is a challenging and very fun fine motor St. Patrick's Day activity.

*Gross Motor: Shamrock Search and Match

Hide shamrocks around the room for students to find. Once a student finds one, have them come back and meet as a large group. Once everyone is back as a class, have students see who has the matching shamrock to the one they found.

More Ideas:

​​Coin Transfer Dana's Pink Ribbon

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Social and Emotional Activities

Learn more about Ireland

There is so much to explore about Ireland! Listen to Irish Music, read an Irish folk story,
or try some traditional Irish food.

Learn How to do the Irish Jig

Watch a video, and learn how to do the Irish Jig !

Play a game together: Leprechaun Dress-up Rolling Game*

Play a fun game together like this Leprechaun Dress Up Rolling Game from our St. Patrick's Day Activity pack.

Buy this in our shop!

What is something you are lucky to have?

Have a group discussion about things you are lucky to have.

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Pot of Gold Sign-in Activity

​Welcome your students to class with this engaging name recognition activity. 
Includes a variety of themes and available in the shop!

Get this in our shop!

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St. Patrick's Day Counting Cards

$0.00

Download your free copy of this set of St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Counting Cards.

This set includes:

Counting Cards Cards 1-10

Directions, TOS, Graphics Credit

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St. Patrick's Day Preschool Activity Pack

$7.00

This St. Patrick's Day activity pack makes it easy for you to set up fun hands on, engaging preschool math and literacy centers to compliment your themed unit.

This 66-page printable St. Patrick's Day activity pack includes the following activities:

1. 1-10 Rainbow Puzzle
2. Shamrock Count and Clip Cards
3. Shamrocks and Gold Uppercase/Lowercase Letter Matching
4. Rainbow & Clover Color Matching Puzzles
5. Pot of Gold Counting Mats 1-10
6. Pot of Gold Counting Mats 1-10 with Frames & Counters
7. Pot of Gold Counting Mats 1-20 with Frames
8. Clover Shape Clip Cards
9. Sorting Gold shapes
10. Gold Number Matching
11. Leprechaun Dress Up rolling game
12. St. Patrick’s Day Pre-Writing/Cutting Practice
13. St. Patrick’s Day First Sound Clip Cards 
14. Shamrock Sorting 
15. Shamrock Pattern Memory
16. St. Patrick's Day Patterning
17. I spy the number 17
18. St. Patrick’s Day Word Wall Cards
19. St. Patrick’s Day Sweeping Mats
20. St. Patrick's Day 3 Part Cards
21. What is your favorite color? Survey

Cover, TOS, Directions and Graphics Credit

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Attendance Daily Sign In Activities

$7.00

This set includes themed daily sign in and sign out attendance activities for your whole year! These activities help young children learn to recognize their names in a fun way. Your students will love finding their names each day. Simply laminate, add velcro and hang on a wall (or place in a binder).

This editable .pdf file includes an automated class list to make it easy to customize your sign in activities. Simply fill in the form and all of the activities will automatically update with your student names.

Inside this editable set you will find the following themed activities:

• Back to School lunchbox/bus cards
• Apple Tree/Apple cards
• Farm/Hay cards
• Pumpkin Patch/Pumpkin cards
• Fire Safety/Fire Truck cards
• Halloween/Candy Corn cards
• Spider Wed/Spider
• Fall Tree/Leaf cards
• Turkey/Feather cards
• Christmas Tree/ornament cards
• Snow/Snowball cards
• Dental Health/Toothbrush cards
• Valentine’s/Candy Heart cards
• Rain/Raindrop cards
• St. Patrick’s Day/Gold Coins cards
• Bubbles cards
• Easter Basket/Egg cards
• Flower/Petal cards
• Ice Cream/cone cards
• Fourth of July/Star cards
• Camping/Tent cards

TOS & Graphics Credit

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How to Catch a Leprechaun Book Companion and Leprechaun Board Game

$3.00

This preschool activity is a book companion and board game printable that goes along with the book How to Catch a Leprechaun. Children will read the book and then play a fun board game where they take turns trying to catch the leprechaun. They will learn about numbers, colors, and taking turns while having a blast trying to trap the elusive leprechaun.

Printable Preschool How to Catch a Leprechaun Book Companion

Our Preschool How to Catch a Leprechaun Book Companion includes a carefully crafted collection of activities designed to complement the related book; fostering early literacy skills, and vocabulary development.

About the book How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace:

The house is filled with so many traps but will they be enough to catch this tricky little leprechaun. Read on to see how he keeps getting away!

What's Included

Book Companion Activities:

Immerse young learners in the story with engaging Vocabulary and Discussion Questions

Enhance comprehension and language skills as you follow this fun St. Patrick’s Day adventure. Note: The book "How to Catch a Leprechaun" by Adam Wallace is not included and must be purchased or borrowed from a library.

Book Review Worksheet:

Encourage reflection and critical thinking with our Book Review Worksheet. This page provides an opportunity for children to express their thoughts and feelings about the story, promoting language development and comprehension.

Catch a Leprechaun Board Game Extension Activity:

Extend the learning experience with a fun and interactive board game. This board game encourages children to recall the events from the story while also working on math skills and learning to take turns. 

This 9-pg. .pdf file also includes Table of contents, Terms of Service, and Directions. Please make sure you have the most current free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC installed on your PC.

Key Features:

Complements "How to Catch a Leprechaun " by Adam Wallace: Specifically designed to align with the featured book. Please note that the book itself is not included and must be purchased or borrowed from the library separately.

Interactive Learning: Activities are thoughtfully crafted to engage preschoolers, promoting vocabulary development, comprehension, and critical thinking.

Printable and Reusable: Conveniently print the pages you need for multiple uses, making it suitable for classrooms, homeschooling, or a cozy activity at home.

How to Use:

Obtain the Book: Purchase or borrow a copy from your preferred retailer or local library.

Print and Explore: Print the companion activities and dive into the story with Vocabulary and Discussion Questions, fostering engagement and understanding.

Reflect: Use the Book Review Worksheet to encourage thoughtful reflection and expression of feelings about the story.

Extend the Fun: Invite preschoolers to recall the events of the story by engaging in fun hands-on activities.

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The Night Before St. Patrick's Day Pre-K Book Companion

$3.00

The Night Before St. Patrick's Day Book Companion

This printable preschool activity companion is the perfect way to celebrate The Night Before St. Patrick's Day book with your little ones. It includes fun and educational activities designed specifically for preschoolers. Be sure to pick up a copy of the book The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing, it pairs perfectly with these activities!

What is Included:

Educator Resources

• Vocabulary and Discussion Questions & Extension Activity Ideas for This Book
• Draw & Respond Book Review
• Comprehension Clip Cards
• Pot of Gold 1st Sounds Puzzle Activity & Recording Worksheet
• Design a Leprechaun Trap STEM Project Engineering Worksheet & Word Bank
• Directions TOS & Graphics Credit

*This is a digital product, no physical product will be sent

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