jessicazornes
- Feb 28, 2023
- 3 min read

St. Patrick's Day

Lesson Plan Ideas That Don't Need Luck!

Feeling Lucky?

There are those great homeschool lesson plans you spend quality time planning and crafting, but can still leave you wondering...are the kids going to enjoy it?

I love to plan engaging lesson plans for my kids that involve it all, largely because there is so much learning that happens in all things, I just never know which seed I plant will really take root and resonate with them. Seeing them actively engaged with the lesson I create for them, and taking a vested interest, is something that makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world!

3 Clovers or 4...

It really doesn't matter what the topic, I want my kids to see that learning takes place in every aspect of life. From the wondrous creations around us, to the seemingly small everyday items- like wax, and everything in between. So with St. Patrick's Day falling under that umbrella, I was sure to create a lesson plan that covered the festive fun and its reason for celebration.

Here's some ideas to kick start your lesson, that may just be the good luck charm for a great week of learning!

My Lucky Charm

Our best method of learning is through hands-on activities and learning games, so when teaching new concepts, or practicing old ones, I use the theme of the week to formulate games by subject.

We played "Where's the Spud", with inspiration that came from our read aloud Jaime O'Rourke and the Big Potato" by Tomie dePaola. A wild folklore with a fantastic moral. In this learning activity, we practiced charting and coordinates by digging through the grid sections in search of the potato. This activity was so engaging for them that they wanted to play it again! Get the full instructions for this activity here.

St. Patrick's Day: "Where's the Spud" Learning Activity — Practice charting and coordinate skills by playing "Where's the Spud".

Growing on the concepts from our week's story, I put the potato idea to good use. We did a wide variety of potato kitchen creations and art projects, so many that we even ran out of potatoes! For our spelling activity though, all I needed was some homemade play dough, colored and shaped to the look of the spud. In this learning game potatoes in the "grass" with misspelled words, got the masher! My kids absolutely love smooshing and smashing things, so this activity really appealed to them. What I love is that it required their close attention for spelling accuracy and comparison.

St. Patrick's Day: Potato Mash Learning Activity — Misspellings look out, the masher is coming for you in "Potato Mash!"

Get the complete Jaime O'Rourke and the Big Potato Unit Here!

This activity came from our first homeschool year which was our St. Patrick's Day/Ireland lesson plan. In "Lucky Scratcher", players had the thrill of scratching off the paint circles in search of numbers. This game allowed them to practice greater than, less than number comparison. For added excitement, if the player revealed an image of a horseshoe or clover image, they got an instant win! Getting them thrilled about math- that's like finding a pot of gold!

St. Patrick's Day: "Lucky Scratcher" Learning Activity — Scratch to reveal numbers to find out if it is less than fifty, and greater than 10 . Reveal the hidden horseshoe or clover for an instant win!

Besides the learning activities, I try to incorporate a kitchen creation each week, which works so many skills, while getting to know (and taste!) more about different cultures and countries. While exploring Ireland, we put our kitchen skills to use to bake Irish Soda Bread. This bread was as tasty as it was beautiful.