Special Saint Patrick's Week — Lesson Plan

Here in Spain, people don't celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, but for me any festivity is a good excuse to teach some English—or in this case, Irish—culture.

I teach one-to-one classes and have different kids on different days. That allows me to prepare the class once and re-use it every day with different students—simply adapting it to their ages and levels.

So, for me this is Saint Patrick's Week!

This lesson plan covers an hour class and it's meant for 4-7 year old kids.

• Make a Circle from Super Simple Song Vol. 2

I can't stress it enough, start your classes with a song! You can either always use a Hello song or review the song from the previous class. If I have enough time, I usually like to do both—kids love repetition and they benefit greatly from it.

For this special class, though, I'm skipping the Hello song to go straight into Make a Circle (you'll also see this song used in this lesson plan).

This is a great song to sing before any activity that requires kids to be seated.

Before singing, make sure everything is ready on the table. This is very important if you want to take advantage of the "Now sit down" part at the end of the song and get everybody ready to craft away.

• SAINT PATRICK'S CRAFTS

I love telling stories and my students love listening!

For this special lesson plan, I use a very handy book written and designed by Emma Farrell from Clever Classroom. I use it like a real book on my iPad, so I removed the intro and end pages.

I read the most important parts to my students, showing the pictures and asking simple questions.

You can ask any question: what pictures they like the best, which Leprechaun is their favorite, if they like the color green, what else is green around us…

At the end of the book, they'll be motivated enough to start the crafty activity. I have selected three, depending on the kid's level, age and what they like.

1. How to draw a Leprechaun by Kathy Barbro

I found this on Art Project for Kids and it is perfect for students who like drawing and colouring (this year, I used it with 5 and 6 year olds). You can find the tutorial here—as always, I have it on my iPad to show in the class.

Before the class, you'll only have to draw a grid of 16 identical rectangles on the white paper your student is going to use (see picture below).

This is the Leprechaun made by a very talented 5-year-old student, Alejandra.

2. Leprechaun Coin Game by MollyMoo

I love making crafts that have a purpose and this is one of them!

You can find a template here. Just print it out, have kids color and cut it, and then stick it onto a pre-cut cardboard (you can use an old shoe box). The edge of the shoe box lid is the perfect size to make your handle—if it has a white side, you can color it green.

Then, we attach the coin by using any thread (for the one in the picture, made by Juan, we used a transparent plastic thread).

Once you're done, it's game time! Whoever gets the coin in the hole 3 times in a row is the winner.

For this activity, it’s best to cut the cardboard before the class—it can be very tricky for young kids.

3. The Funny Leprechaun by Housing a Forest

This activity is for kids who handle scissors well. I use colored paper so we only have to do the cutting and glueing.

It's good to have a picture of the end result for reference (I keep it in my DropBox on my iPad) so kids can see what they have to achieve.

Simply draw all the pieces (show how to do the first one and then let kids do it), cut them out and then glue them together as shown in the picture. If you don't have googly eyes, just make them with paper—it works fine, too.

If you have more time, you can also use white paper and color the pieces before cutting them out.

• Background music is awesome!

When we're crafting away, we always listen to songs. I play the songs we learnt in the past (kids usually sing them while coloring) and sometimes new ones.

Saint Patrick's lesson plan is great to introduce colors. I See Something Pink from Super Simple Songs Vol. 1 is a nice, slow song to play as background music.

When I then use this song in my next class as a game—running around and finding colored objects in the room—kids will already be familiar with it.

When you use a new song as background music, don't introduce the gestures and the lyrics—simply play it until it catches on.

If you enjoyed this lesson plan, I'd like you to let me know by leaving a comment or sharing it with other teachers/parents.

Oh, and don't hesitate to take a look at my other Lesson Plans below for more ideas!