Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick's Day Phonics Activities Using Free Printables

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now 

I love celebrating St. Patrick's Day with children ... it's such a fun holiday! There are lots of great St. Patrick's Day printables available, so I saved the rainbow printables and activities for next month. 


 

I shared my list of free St. Patrick's Day printables in my post today at Living Montessori Now. Here, I've created some St. Patrick's Day phonics activities using free printables for preschoolers through first graders. 

You'll find many activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You'll also find ideas for using free printables to create activity trays here: How to Use Printables to Create Montessori-Inspired Activities. 

At Living Montessori Now, I have a post with resource links of Free Printables for Montessori Homeschools and Preschools. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you. 

St. Patrick's Day Salt Tray for Writing Letters  


For this activity, I used the free Irish Themed Letter Cards from Communication 4 All. To color the salt, I simply added some green food coloring to salt in a plastic bag. A salt tray a perfect way to reinforce writing for preschoolers.

If you'd like to know more about how to introduce letter sounds in Montessori education, check out my post with Inexpensive and DIY Sandpaper Letters. 
  

ch, sh, and th St. Patrick's Day Sorting Activity
   

This activity uses the free Sh, Ch, and Th Sorting from Every Star Is Different and the St. Patrick’s Day Digraph Activities from Make, Take & Teach (for the shamrocks). I used a Montessori services basket to hold the materials.  

I used a Montessori Services rug for my layout. I only show 8 cards of each phonogram in the layout, but there are 11 of each available.

  Hidden 

Hidden Treasure CVC Phonics Activity  

This activity uses the fun idea of hidden treasure to reinforce phonics. I used the Hidden Treasure CVC Printable by Amy Swan at Teachers Pay Teachers. You could have a scavenger hunt by hiding the cards around the room and then having the children write the pictured CVC word on the recording page that's part of the printable. 

I made a hands-on activity with no writing by cutting apart the sentences from the recording sheet. I used a medium-size tray from Montessori Services for the activity. I added gold coins to a container and then buried the cards in the coins. Children could just sound out the pictured words or write the sentences on a separate recording page if preferred.

I Spy St. Patrick's Day Words 

This activity was super simple to prepare. It uses the free I Spy St. Patrick’s Day Words from Teach with Laughter. The tray is the Montessori Services large plastic tray, which I use for many types of activities. I simply added a magnifying glass so that children could read the tiny words on the page. 

The words are all phonetic on this page except for "leprechaun." Even children who sound out words will typically figure out the word after sounding out the beginning part of "leprechaun."

St. Patrick's Day Word Book 

This activity uses the free St. Patrick’s Day Word Book from Making Learning Fun. It was another activity that was super simple to prepare. The printable is actually meant as a sight-word activity. I used only the phonetic words to prepare a simple St. Patrick's Day phonics word book.

St. Patrick's Day Spelling Game

 

This is a fun way to reinforce spelling! It uses the free St. Patrick’s Day Spelling Game from The Measured Mom. The Measured Mom gives clear directions on how to use the printable. It can be used with any spelling list.

Here's the link to my favorite laminator ... inexpensive and great for almost any activity that needs to be laminated!

More Free Valentine Printables and Montessori-Inspired Valentine Activities

Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to St. Patrick's Day freebies from around the blogosphere: Free St. Patrick's Day Printables and Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick's Day Phonics Activities.

You'll find lots of Montessori-inspired Valentine's Day activities and ideas in these Living Montessori Now posts and Pinterest Board:

• Homeschool St. Patrick’s Day
• Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Activities
• Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Activities (2012)
• Montessori-Inspired St. Patrick’s Day Math Activities at PreK + K Sharing
• 40+ St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Tubs
• St. Patrick’s Day Playdough Activities
• Montessori Color Mixing Activities – Rainbows of Color
• Kids’ St. Patrick’s Day Activities Pinterest Board

If you'd like to focus on manners with children, please check out my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to Teach Grace and Courtesy! It's written for anyone who'd like to feel comfortable teaching manners to children ages 2-12.

Have fun preparing for Valentine's Day!

 

 

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in San Diego with her husband of 39 years (and lives in the city where her kids, kids-in-law, and toddler granddaughter live). She blogs at Living Montessori Now.