St Patrick Card

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St Patrick Card

St Patrick Card

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Find me Gold


St Patrick's Day Games and Activities

Lucky Leprechaun Says

How To Play: Played similar to Simon Says. The player up is "Lucky Leprechaun". Player will say "Lucky Leprechaun says hop on one foot". The children will hop on one foot. Player will say "Stop". The children are to keep hopping on one foot until player says "Lucky Leprechaun says stop". Repeat for additional activities such as take one baby step forward, step backwards, turn around, sit down. Sometimes Lucky Leprechaun will say "Lucky Leprechaun says" and sometimes he won't. It's a fun game to play with young children.

St. Patrick's Pictionary

Papers with St. Patrick's day objects written on them

How To Play: Put papers with St. Patrick's Day objects written on them into hat. Divide children into two groups. Flip a coin to see which team goes first. Invite a child from the playing team to approach the chalkboard, draw a slip of paper, and read it to themselves. On your mark, the child should then draw the object in hopes that his/her team members will guess the object on their paper. If the team guesses correctly, before time runs out, they score a point. If the playing team does not guess correctly the other team has five seconds to try to come up with the correct answer. If they guess correctly they score a point and it is their turn to play.

This game can be simplified for young players utilizing words such as: shamrock, gold, pot. Make more difficult for older players by using short phrases: lucky Irish, pot of gold, etc.


Supplies: Irish Jig Music

How To Play: Begin playing music, everyone moves and dances until the music stops then they must "freeze" in whatever position they happen to be in.

Pin The Shamrock on the Leprechaun

Big picture of a Leprechaun
A green shamrock, for each child, with adhesive on back and their name on the front Blindfold

How To Play: Blindfold the player, spin 'em around and let them try to stick the shamrock where it's supposed to go. Give a prize for the player that gets the closest.

Irish Hot Potato

Celtic or Irish Jig Music

How To Play: Sit the children in a circle. Hand one child the potato. Explain to the children that when the music begins they will pass the potato to the person on their right. When the music stops whoever's holding the potato scoots out of the circle and playing resumes.

This game also provides a great opportunity to discuss agriculture in Ireland. Perhaps they could pass while you talk and when you stop (every once in awhile) the person holding the potato has to recap what you said.

Gold, Gold, Who's got the Gold

Supplies: A large gold coin

How To Play: A child is chosen to be the Leprechaun and hides her eyes as a gold coin is given to a child to hide in his lap or behind his back. The Leprechaun then has three chances to guess which child has their gold coin. (All children hide their hands in their laps/behind their backs like they have it.)

Pot of Gold Toss

Large cardboard pot. Good size hole cut-out in center of pot, or a few small holes for older kids.
Gold circular bean bags (gold coins)
Bucket to hold bean bags
Tape to mark distance line

How To Play: Place cardboard pot a little distance from a wall with a paper box lid on floor to catch chocolate bean bags. Mark your distance line according to age and skill of children. Line children up behind the line and place a bucket of gold coin bean bags beside them. Give each child three tries to get their bean bag through the hole. Get all three gold coin bean bags in and earn a 'chocolate' coin reward.

Rainbow Ribbons

Supplies: Cardboard rainbow with colorful ribbons attached.

How To Play: Show the children the rainbow. Have them close their eyes until you tell them to open them. Hide the rainbow with the ribbons attached so only the ribbons show. Have the children open their eyes, stand up and search for the rainbow ribbons. If they find it they should not say a word but return quickly and quietly to their seats. The first person to sit down wins and may take a turn at hiding the rainbow.

Shamrock Shimmy

Supplies: Shamrock for each child with instruction written on one side and a chocolate shaped gold coin taped on the other. Instructions might include: Hop like a bunny, walk like a crab, bear walk, skip, walk backwards, etc.

How To Play: Children divide into two teams. Put the shamrocks at the end of the room in two piles. On your mark the first child on each team runs to the pile, takes a shamrock and does what the shamrock says while returning to their team, then sits down. The next team member then runs to the pile...etc. The first team to be sitting down wins. Everyone enjoys a chocolate in the end.

Leprechaun Hop

Supplies: Gold coin pillow for each team.

How To Play: Children divide into two teams. Give each team a gold coin pillow. Pillow size should be larger for younger children and smaller for older children. Have one child from each team place the gold coin between their legs and hop to the end of the room and back. They sit down and the next team member goes. This repeats until one team is all sitting.

Pass The Blarney Stone

Supplies: Grey stone pillow for each team.

How To Play: Children divide into two teams. Give each team a grey stone pillow the size of an orange. On your mark, the first child puts the pillow between their chin and neck and passes it to the next player. Here's the catch, players may only use their heads to pass (no hands or teeth allowed). The process continues to the last person in line and then reverses sending the pillow back to the first player in line. The first team to complete the game wins.

How Many Coins

Large glass jar filled with chocolate gold coins
Small pieces of paper

How To Play: Have children write their name on a small piece of paper and their guess as to how many coins are in the jar. The child who guesses the right number, or comes closest, gets a 'lucky' sucker. The candy in the jar is then divided among the children. A variation would be that the winner takes the jar of candy home to share with their family.

Shamrock Stomp

Supplies: Large laminated green shamrocks, taped to the floor, one for each child Irish Jig Music

How To Play: Every child begins by standing on a shamrock that has been taped to the floor. Start the music and have the children walk around the room. When the music stops they need to stand on a shamrock or they're out. Remove one shamrock after each musical segment.