St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th every year! It’s the perfect time to grab a St. Patrick’s Day read aloud for your classroom. There are many read alouds that are great to help teach about the holiday and students are sure to be engaged as they listen to silly stories of leprechauns, non fiction books that tell of the history, and more. Let’s look at some read alouds you can read in your classroom this March to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!
You may be wondering, why should I read aloud to my class? There is so much to teach, especially to my littlest readers who are simply learning to decode. I have phonics and dictation and small groups and intervention time and so much to squeeze in with our literacy curriculum. Do I really need to make time for read alouds even if our curriculum does not? YES!
Read Alouds have so many benefits for students! Scarborough’s reading rope shows the importance of students acquiring language comprehension skills such as vocabulary, literacy knowledge, and verbal reasoning to help them become skilled readers.
We need read alouds in the classroom!
This is where St. Patrick’s Day read alouds come in! As the teacher you are modeling what a fluent, skilled reader does and sounds like while also providing opportunities for students to try. I share more about the importance of interactive read aloud lessons HERE in this blog post.
This is a cute story about a girl who outsmarts the Leprechaun King to bring luck back to Ireland. I love that the setting for this story is Ireland, the birth land of St. Patrick’s Day! Your students will enjoy seeing Fiona prevail over the Leprechaun King. This is a great St. Patrick’s Day read aloud to use as you teach point of view!
Point of View can be a tricky concept, especially for our littlest learners, but this lesson really helps bring it to life and make it simple to understand! You will be able to stop and have meaningful discussion with this lesson as you guide them to understanding point of view. Get this lesson HERE.
Have you ever read a book about a man and a potato? Me either until I discovered this St. Patrick’s Day read aloud! Jamie is a lazy man who encounters a leprechaun. After meeting a leprechaun, the biggest potato starts growing in his front yard. How wild is that? I love using this book to teach determining importance. Get this lesson HERE.
Our youngest readers often feel little. Maybe they are the littlest kid at home, or are the little kids on campus. In this story, Liam is a little leprechaun who feels too small to be helpful. Kids love books that they can see themselves in! Students can easily relate to Liam’s feelings which makes this a great book to use to teach making connections!
Read this St. Patrick’s Day read aloud to find out how a little leprechaun can turn out to be helpful! Get this lesson HERE.
Oh no! We have a St. Patrick’s Day problem to help solve! Rabbit’s pot of shamrocks goes missing when it is time for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Will he find the pot of shamrocks after all? How will he do this?
You can use this St. Patrick’s Day read aloud to teach making connections with your students. Get this lesson HERE.
Do you know the history behind St. Patrick’s Day? Most Americans do not. This was a new to me book this year. My kids and I really enjoyed learning more about St. Patrick and how the holiday started. This non fiction book by Gail Gibbons is great to help teach determining importance or main idea!
Your class will love this book about a kid who tries to catch a leprechaun by setting a trap. What is more fun than making a trap in hopes of catching a leprechaun? This could be used to help teach making predictions. We use this book as a part of our March Read Alouds found HERE.
Kids’ imaginations go wild as they come up with ways to trap a leprechaun and make predictions as they listen to this St. Patrick’s Day read aloud. You can even extend this brainstorming session and have your kids write about how they would catch a leprechaun.
Side note: In my humble teacher opinion, this is a much cleaner, easier, and engaging activity than the mess that some leprechaun’s leave in classroom.
CLICK HERE to grab your FREE writing paper for How to Catch a Leprechaun
Are you looking for lessons that go with these books? I have ready-made lessons that match for these 6 St. Patrick’s Day read aloud books and MORE inside The Read Aloud Library.
Each lesson includes:
CLICK HERE to Join Hundreds of Teachers inside The Read Aloud Library
Are there any books you enjoy reading in your classroom to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This FREE guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!
I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students love and that are easy to implement for teachers. Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!
