St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space

Themed unit studies are an amazing opportunity to expand social studies, learn about various cultures and traditions while having fun decorating a classroom or your St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space. Children are excitedly anticipating St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated annually on March 13. It is such an amazing themed holiday unit and a perfect transition from winter to spring!

2019 St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space

Below I will show you our 2019 St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space as well as materials we have been using when Adrian was five-years-old.

We learned that on St. Patrick’s Day many people give cards or flowers to their family and friends. People also make cookies, cakes and other goodies to share with others. Some people wear green carnations or pin shamrocks to their clothing to celebrate the holiday.

---

People dance Irish jigs and play games. Pipers and fiddlers play Irish tunes. There are green hats everywhere, people are wearing green costumes, green banners are hung on windows … there are a lot of shades of green everywhere!

People also decorate their houses with shamrock, which is a plant with three leaves, looking like a clover. Shamrock is the most recognized symbol of Saint Patrick as well as of Ireland.

Who was St. Patrick?

St. Patrick gained the title of Patron Saint of Ireland based on his actions, not his birthplace. No one is totally sure where was he born: England, Scotland or Wales, but he definitely was not born on Emerald Ilse. Originally born under the name Maewyn Succat around 386 A.D., St. Patrick belonged to a wealthy aristocratic family who owned a large estate. His family were Christians, but Patrick showed little interest in religion, and although his father was a deacon, the future saint wasn’t a religious child at all. It wasn’t until he was kidnapped at age sixteen and taken to Ireland (where he was forced to work as a shepherd for Irish invaders) that he found his faith. While in slavery, lonely and scared, he turned to his family religion for solace. Throughout his time in captivity, he became a devout Christian and was encouraged by a voice he believed to be God’s to escape from his captors. Patrick walked 200 miles to the Ireland Eastern coast where he found a passage to the ship. Later on, an angel told him to return to Ireland as a missioner. And so he did .. after studying to become a Catholic priest he returned to a country he called a “prison” to teach Keltik Pegan population empathy and respect. 

MUG HACK

---

2018 St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space

Below I will show you our 2018 St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space as well as what was on our shelves when Adrian was four-years-old. 

In Ireland, when St. Patrick was introducing Christianity, he used a shamrock to teach the mystery of the Holy Trinity: the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit: three leaves on one stem. He tried to explain how three separate entities can yet be one in the same. On March 17, 461, Patrick died. Because Saint Patrick is a saint of the Catholic Church, we celebrate the day he entered into heaven rather than the day of his birth.

St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space

St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space looks so inviting with all the colors of green!

St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space Christmas Tree

---

2017 St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space

Below I will show you our 2017 St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space, as well as what was on our shelves when Adrian was three-years-old. (Also here St. Patrick’s Day 2017 Inspired Learning Space, What is on our shelves, Activities roundup.)

Do leprechauns really exist?! Yes! “You can see a rainbow almost every day in Ireland so you start believing in leprechauns, and so does the European Union! Leprechauns are officially protected species under EU law! “The Carlingford Sliabh Foy Loop Trail became a sanctuary and protected land for the country’s remaining leprechauns—236 in total that live there — and nearby Slieve Foye Mountain gained protection under the European Habitats Directive, which protects flora, fauna, and apparently, magical fairies.” Read more here.

St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space ~ ON OUR SHELVES

Here, we have been using St. Patrick’s Day symbols instead of spindles for a Traditional Montessori Math Activity “Spindle Box” (read here). We also made rainbows from Montessori Color tablets (see here), and Adrian reproduced a Lucky Four-Leafed Clover pattern on a Montessori Hundred Board (see here). 

On the left are materials for a Shamrock DIY Recycled TPR Craft (see here.) In the middle is our favorite at the moment My First Book of Baby Animals (read a post here). And we are using Montessori Knobless Cylinders to make rainbows (see here).

Children love pipe-cleaner beading activities! (See here Shamrock Pipe Cleaner Beads Fine Motor Craft). We also used golden coins as counters while learning numbers. (Adrian would “trace” each number with a green dot sticker first.) See a similar activity with counters here.

St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space

---

And, by the way, a Leprechaun ended up visiting us for a quick bite after all. 

Children were super excited to see that the Leprechaun ate all the nuts we left out for him and drank some of his favorite dandelion tea …

We did not catch a Leprechaun on camera though since they are quick, shrewd and camera-shy.

Have you been lucky to catch a Leprechaun? Have any of your “perfect” traps worked? Leave a comment! I love hearing from you about YOUR St. Patrick’s Day Montessori Learning Space!

For fun DIYs, hands-on activities and crafts, see here our entire St. Patrick’s Day Inspired Unit Study.

---

---

eBOOK | THE BASICS Bringing Montessori Home

“Our work is not to teach, but to HELP the absorbent mind in its work of development. How marvelous it would be if by our help, if by an intelligent treatment of the child, if by understanding the needs of his physical life and by feeding his intellect, we could prolong the period of functioning of the absorbent mind!”

Montessori MADE EASY MEMBERSHIP

Also, in case you are exhausted from swimming in the vast ocean of irrelevant information and saving activities you never get to! JOIN Montessori MADE-EASY membership! And if you do, the eBook THE BASICS is included in the membership amongst MANY other perks!

I am here to help! WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!

♡ Enriching the Mind one Heart at a time ♡

FIND US on Instagram ♡ Facebook ♡ Pinterest ♡