Free St Patrick’s Day Activities: Is he happy, sad, or just bored?
This set of free St Patrick’s Day activities will delight and challenge your child’s social emotional learning. And, you can use it all year long as a fun game! Here are some ideas for how to use this full color set that includes a leprechaun face sans eyes, nose, and mouth; 18 different facial expressions; labels for the expressions; and a guide, or answer key.
How to use the free St Patrick’s Day activities
Like many of my other free resources, I recommend covering the faces and the leprechaun in contact paper or laminating it for greater durability.
First, cut out the 18 faces. DON’T PASTE. Only paste if you intend to print a new set of faces every time you want to play a game. I don’t like wasting paper and I’m sure you don’t either, so…
Now, cut out the labels. You are ready to play one of these super fun games that help kids learn about feelings. Oh, and a great way to store everything is in a large manila envelope with the “St. Patrick’s Day Emotions Cut and Paste” taped to the outside. Or, use packing tape to tape up the sides of a regular file folder and stuff your game pieces inside!
What is my emotion?
One game you can play with the free St Patrick’s Day activities is What is my emotion? You can play this with just a few faces for younger kids or all of them for older kids. You start by putting a face on the leprechaun. The first child to say the emotion gets a point (or, you can set a timer if you are doing this with one child. Give a point if they can guess in under five seconds.).
You could do the reverse of this game as well. This version would require a game timer. Pick an emotion from the pile of names and call it out. Give a point if the player can put the correct face on the leprechaun in five seconds or less (or however much time you want to allow.).
I highly recommend starting with only five emotions–angry, sad, happy, disgusted, and bored. These are generally easy for kids to identify. If you start with all 18, it will be a bit confusing because some emotions look similar.
Matching
Another way to use these free St Patrick’s Day activities is to make it a matching game. The faces could be printed twice. This would encourage children to pay close attention to the differences between similar expressions. When a match is made, they could use the guide to see the name of the emotion they matched.
Another variation of this game is to make the face yourself and ask your child to find the leprechaun’s face that matches yours. This version can be a great way to teach facial expressions and emotions to children with autism.
How do you feel today?
These free St Patrick’s Day activities can be used as an emotional gauge for your child. You will need to add Velcro to the backs of the faces and a receiving strip on the leprechaun so that the faces stick. Post the leprechaun on your refrigerator or other visible and easily reached spot. Your child can switch out the faces according to his mood for the day or at that moment. This will help him better express himself and learn to communicate his needs.
Tell a Story
Lastly, the free St Patrick’s Day activities can be used to tell a story about the leprechaun’s day. For example, he felt happy (put the happy face on him) when he got up in the morning. Then, he felt angry when his little brother took his toy. After that, he was sad when he didn’t get to go to the ice cream shop after lunch. Etc. Etc. This activity builds emotional awareness. Learn more about how to nurture emotional intelligence and help your child be more resilient.
I’d love to hear what you decide to try with these free St Patrick’s Day activities. Tell me about it in the comments and maybe I’ll add them in to this article!
Grab your Free St Patrick’s Day Activities!
