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We are all a bit of Irish during St. Patrick’s Day! To help you celebrate we have a full week of St. Patrick’s Day themed activities to encourage speech, language, vocabulary, and a touch of luck. While you may not be guaranteed to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, we can bet you will find your new go-to activity for St. Patrick’s Day. So get ready to shamrock your world with this golden list of fun themed activities!
St. Patrick’s Day Themed Speech & Language Activities
- Make It Monday
- Take A Trip Tuesday
- Water Wednesday
- Thinking Thursday
- Foodie Friday
- Scavenger Hunt Saturday
- Sensory Sunday
Make It Monday
To start off the week, we have an easy and versatile rainbow paint dotter craft. All you need is black construction paper, white construction paper, paint dotters, gold glitter, scissors, and glue.
Cut out a small black pot for the gold then paste onto to the white paper. Next, use the paint dotters to create the colors of the rainbow. My son dotted for a bit then switched to lines. Either way I think it turned out great! Last, spread a little bit of glue on top of the pot then sprinkle the gold glitter to create the perfect pot of leprechaun gold.
We made this craft at home, but I also did this activity with my speech and language students. I had students say their target word every time they made a dot on the rainbow. For my language sessions, I had students answer a spring themed WH question then make a few dots.
Take A Trip Tuesday
Sometimes you just need to “drink” your dinner! But in all seriousness, we enjoyed taking a little St. Patrick’s Day take a trip Tuesday for a yummy Shamrock Shake at McDonald’s!
My son had never had one of these shakes before and instantly loved the mint flavor (and whipped cream and cherry and the fact that we we getting ice cream before dinner!) But I loved watching him independently order, pay with cash, and devour his treat.
Any trip where our kids get to practice life skills and interacting with others is a win. Plus who doesn’t love a bright green milkshake? 🤪 This may be a new St. Patrick’s Day tradition for us!
Water Wednesday
For our St. Patrick’s Day water activity, Mandy made the coolest rainbow ever! All you need is a plate, some Skittles, and hot water. Line the outer rim of a plate with the candy. Pour in the hot water and wait. Watch carefully to see a fun rainbow surprise appear!
This super fun and colorful water science experiment will strengthen your students predicting, inferencing, and direction following skills. I love using these types of activities for large group sessions especially with my older students. They really enjoy making predictions then helping me set up the experiment. We always have a great discussion about the outcome too!
Also read: 5 Tips For Planning A Productive Large Speech & Language Group
Do you work with younger kids? Practice color identification, describing, and turn-taking. And if allowed, they can have a little taste too. 😉
Thinking Thursday
For our Thinking Thursday book, we had to go with How To Catch A Leprechaun by Adam Wallace. This book is definitely a fan favorite on social media and for good reason. Kids love seeing all of the creative ways to catch a pesky leprechaun while listening to a rhyming story.
There are a ton of awesome and FREE book companions out there to pair with the story too. Makes the perfect St. Patrick’s Day activity for all your students!
To really settle into the St. Patrick’s Day theme, Mandy made the COOLEST freebie for you this week. Check out this lucky cereal sorting activity! Instantly download the PDF below to target categorizing and direction following with some lucky cereal pieces.
There is a full color page with all of the marshmallows for students to sort by shape and color. Then use the lucky listening cards to have students place the correct number of cereal pieces into the bowl. This freebie St. Patrick’s Day download will easily become one of your to-go language activities!
Foodie Friday
Need a delicious, no-bake, fun way to trap a leprechaun? We found the best recipe for leprechaun bait to make your St. Patrick’s Day activity list complete. Just grab the ingredients listed below and click here for the full recipe by Chelsea’s Messy Apron.
- Corn Chex cereal
- Miniature pretzel twists
- Lucky Charms cereal (and extra marshmallows from cereal)
- Green M&Ms
- White chocolate chips
- Vegetable oil
Since this recipe is no bake, it was perfect for Mandy’s girls to help make. If you are lucky enough to be able to cook at school, we recommend this yummy recipe to target life skills, direction following, and turn-taking. Be sure to leave some out to try your luck at catching a leprechaun too!
Scavenger Hunt Saturday
Our repertoire of vocabulary scavenger hunts is continuing to grow! For our St. Patrick’s Day themed activity week, Mandy created a St. Patrick’s Day Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt for our holiday language sessions! Targeted vocabulary words include: Leprechaun, Harp, Four Leaf Clover, March, Pot Of Gold, Green, Gold Coin, Horseshoe, Hat, Shamrock, Shake, Flag, Balloon, Rainbow.
The best part about these vocabulary hunts? They can be used so many different ways! Have students search the colorful picture scene to locate items and then use the checklist to mark off each word. You can hide the vocabulary words around the speech room, house, or sensory bin for a fun search and find activity. Lastly, use the find and color or find and cover sheets to go with any of the above!
Click here to grab your St. Patrick’s Day Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt now!
Sensory Sunday
For our last St. Patrick’s Day themed activity this week, we have a lucky sensory bin for you! All you need to do is dye some white rice yellow for a fun golden twist. Then throw in a few empty pots, shamrocks, coins, and scoopers.
Let your little leprechauns scoop, pinch, dump, and pour all week long! Mandy’s girls used spoons, tongs, and their hands to mix up the rice and fill the little pots of gold. You could even throw in our St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt Vocabulary Hunt cards or Freebie Spring Vocabulary Cards for some added fun and practice!
So we hope you and your little leprechauns enjoy this week full of St. Patrick’s Day activities. We bet you won’t need a to of luck to make your speech and language sessions a hit with these activities.
Excited to try one of these St. Patrick’s Day activities? Drop us a comment below and let us know which one you plan to do with your caseload or kids at home. Then be sure to let us know on social media…we would love to see how your St. Patrick’s Day fun turns out!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Kate & Mandy
Talking Mama Bears