Saint Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland. His death, March 17, is celebrated as Saint Patrick's Day, and there are many interesting traditions that go along with the celebration. Teach your students about Saint Patrick, who he was and what he did during his lifetime.
Who Was Saint Patrick?
Saint Patrick was born Maewyn Succat in either Scotland or Wales in 370 AD. When he was a teenager, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. As a slave he was put to work as a shepherd. During this time, he began to have dreams, which led him to escape, and eventually led him to study for the priesthood in France. It was there that he changed his name to Patrick, meaning "father of his people". From there, Saint Patrick went back to Ireland, and traveled around preaching and building schools and churches.
Ideas for Celebrating Saint Patrick's Day
Have students wear the traditional green white and orange shamrocks that children in Ireland wear. Provide the girls with green ribbons to put in their hair as well. Create a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt for one of your lessons. Each leprechaun or shamrock should contain a question that students have to answer correctly to receive a clue. Students must them put the clues together to find the pot of gold, which contains some sort of treat or surprise.
A fun fact about shamrocks: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most leaves on a single shamrock is 17. Encourage your students to search for more interesting facts about Saint Patrick's Day and Ireland.
Lesson Ideas for Saint Patrick's Day
Students can be grouped together and assigned a project to complete for Saint Patrick's Day. One group should research Saint Patrick, and prepare a presentation about his life. One group can research the slave trade, both in Ireland and in America. Another group can prepare a presentation on what a shepherd does, so that students can understand what it was that Saint Patrick did while in slavery.
You can also have your older students work together to write and produce a play about Saint Patrick. For each of these ideas, you need to provide a rubric to your students ahead of time, so that they understand what is required of them.
Saint Patrick spent his life giving back to the people of Ireland, preaching the Catholic faith and building schools and churches. There are a lot of myths surrounding Saint Patrick, but the life and works of this great man are worth the time to teach students about.
You may be interested in tips on writing lesson plans.
Jennifer Wagaman - Jennifer is a mother of 2 and has both public, private and administrative experience in the education field.
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