St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate! March tends to be a LONG month so it’s nice to break it up with some engaging upper elementary St. Patrick’s Day math activities! Keep reading for 3 of my favorite activities that you can plug into your March math lesson plans!
Math Riddle Activities
The thing about math is that no matter what concept you’re working on, students need lots of PRACTICE to get it! Repetitive practice can get pretty boring after a while, so I love to add a little twist–riddles!
Instead of giving students a boring worksheet to practice a math concept, how about adding a riddle to it? Doing this not only adds a fun twist, , but it also makes it self-checking! If students are unable to answer the riddle correctly, they can tell that they had a mistake somewhere in their math. And hopefully, they will go back and check their work!
This St. Patrick’s Day math activity is no-prep, so you can pull it out at the last minute (for those days when you just need something to print on the morning of). You can use them for early finisher work, centers, morning work, homework, and much more!
Want to grab a ready-made riddle set for your students? These riddles come with printable worksheets and Google Slides that can be assigned digitally. They are the perfect St. Patrick’s Day practice!
There are three different riddles available. (Each math topic uses the same riddles. Keep this in mind when purchasing.) There are riddles for:
Each set includes four riddles, an answer key, a paper version, and a digital version.
St. Patrick’s Day Math Escape Rooms
Escape rooms are always a favorite in my classroom! I love them so much that my students complete one at almost every holiday to review the unit we’re working on at that time.
This engaging St. Patrick’s Day math escape room follows the story of a leprechaun who has had his pot of gold stolen from him. Unfortunately it’s locked in a safe under a bridge and he needs your students to help him unlock it. Students will use their math skills to answer 3 clues that unlock the safe and save the pot of gold!
This escape room comes in the following versions:
These escape rooms are great because they are so low-prep. All it takes is printing, a little bit of cutting, and they are ready to go! OR if you’re truly wanting no-prep, you can even assign it online!
I love using escape rooms to review for an upcoming test in collaborative groups. They’re also perfect for small groups, math centers, and early finisher activities!
Each escape room includes 3 clues in a printable and a digital version.
Student-Created Word Problems
I love having students write their own word problems! It gives students a chance to show what they know in a different way. Incorporating St. Patrick’s Day into word problems puts a fun spin on math and allows students to learn about the holiday!
Give students some ideas by incorporating a St. Patrick’s Day read aloud or video. Then brainstorm a list of words or phrases associated with St. Patrick’s Day. This will give students some inspiration for their word problems!
Explain to the students that they are going to create their own St. Patrick’s Day word problems. Ask the students to create a problem using one of the words from their brainstorming session. It may help if you require them to write the equation that goes with their word problem to help them get started.
Once the students have written their word problems, have them solve their own problem. Then have them switch with a classmate to see if someone else can solve the word problem they wrote!
St. Patrick’s Day is a great time to have a little fun during math in your classroom! Using holiday themed activities will almost make your students forget they’re learning, while doing an activity that they love!
Love these ideas and want more? Check out these posts:
