If you’re the type of teacher to plan far ahead (the rest of us are jealous of you btw) check out these fun St. Patrick’s Day science activities. They’re holiday-inspired investigations, kid-tested and easy to set up. The resource includes five different experiments, so there are a few options to consider when scheduling your lessons.

• Pick and choose your favorite lessons to do.
• Do one a day during the week of St. Patrick’s Day.
• Plan a Science Day with your teammates where each classroom becomes a different lab, or Investigation Station, for the children to rotate through.

The last option is my personal favorite. It’s the best way to bring your whole grade level group together and share the work load for one day of holiday fun!

St. Patrick’s Day Science Activities

This science resource includes:

• all five investigations
• teacher directions and tips
• student recording sheets
• five science explanation sheets answering, “How did that work?”
• photos and anchor charts to use during the lessons as visual aids

Lesson: Skittley Diddley Do

For the Skittley Diddley Do investigation👆, you’ll need Skittles™, warm water, and a white kitchen plate (not paper). This is a fairly well known science activity for St. Patrick’s Day. You’ve probably seen variations of it all over social media and Pinterest. To make it more school-ready, I created recording sheets to go with it so children could practice following procedures and understand the science that’s occurring during the experiment. The worksheets give them a chance to record predictions, explain observations, and illustrate the results. For this investigation, they’ll learn (or review) key science vocabulary such as dissolve and liquid.

Lesson: Tasty Rainbow

This Tasty Rainbow activity is pretty basic, but the kids love it for obvious reasons. Simply put, in a blind taste test, can they use their senses of smell and taste to identify which fruit flavor they’re eating? For kids in 1st and 2nd grades, this will be an easy, but yummy, review of what they know about senses.

Lesson: Magic Rainbow Ring

The Magic Rainbow Ring (pictured at the top) is easy to set up, but it takes a little bit of time for the colors to deepen. Sometimes, we read a few St. Patrick’s Day poems or a picture book while we’re waiting. In this activity, children mix colors, see how water molecules move, and learn how some solids absorb liquids while others repel them.

Lesson: How Lucky Are the Charms?

This is one of those St. Patrick’s Day activities that can get a little crazy, but the kids have so much fun with it. Place a handful of Lucky Charms cereal on a flat surface like a table or desk. Then, challenge kids to use wind energy to blow only the marshmallows into a bowl below. During this lesson, you can review the concepts of energy, force, and motion.

Lesson: Irish Spring Surprise

In terms of the wow factor, I saved the best for last. Unless kids have already done this experiment at home or in a prior grade, they have no idea what will happen to a bar of soap when heated. Most kids associate heat with melting candy or crayons, so the common prediction is that the soap will melt when microwaved. This is a fun activity for observing how heat excites molecules and cause changes in the physical properties of a solid.

   

   

These are a few sample pages from the Irish Spring investigation.👇 These science worksheets provide a space for children to predict outcomes, collect data, record results, and share their ideas. Because the prompts are open-ended and encourage both writing and drawing, they’re developmentally appropriate for multiple ability levels within a single classroom.

Science Lab Worksheets for Irish Spring Surprise

Click 👉HERE for Resource

Teacher Feedback

“We love your science lessons! We have adopted the practice of doing them for every holiday.  It’s a great way to sneak in the science standards without them even realizing it.” -Melissa B.

“I absolutely loved this packet! We completed one activity a day throughout the week and my students loved it. I had done most of these activities in the past, but it was great to have a response packet for the students to fill out before, during, and after. I look forward to getting more holiday activity packets! Thanks!” -Nicole B.

“I did these with my students and they LOVED them! They are designed in a way that they can be done whole group with each kid filling out the sheets on a clip board or in small groups that are student led. Plus, they are super engaging! The explanation pages are in kid friendly language so they understand the why behind the experiment.” -Courtney T.

Happy teaching!

SIMILAR POSTS