Here are three St. Patrick’s Day / leprechaun rhymes and poems for preschoolers! Includes a limerick, an action rhyme, and a fingerplay rhyme for lots of fun!
Un-Lucky
There once was a leprechaun named Lucky.
His favorite toy was his yellow stuffed ducky.
A storm rained hard,
making mud in the yard.
And when he dropped his toy, it got yucky.
Leprechaun, Leprechaun (action rhyme)
Leprechaun, leprechaun turn around.
Leprechaun, leprechaun touch the ground.
Leprechaun, leprechaun dance a reel.
Leprechaun, leprechaun laugh and squeal.
Leprechaun, leprechaun pick a clover.
Leprechaun, leprechaun bend on over.
Leprechaun, leprechaun reach up high.
Leprechaun, leprechaun wave goodbye.
5 Little Shamrocks (Finger Rhyme)
Five little shamrocks growing happily. (hold up hand)
The first one said, “Three leaves have we. ” (wiggle thumb)
The second one said, “They are the color green.” (wiggle pointer finger)
The third one said, “They’re the prettiest I’ve ever seen!” (wiggle middle finger)
The fourth one said, “And they’re heart shaped too.” (wiggle ring finger)
The fifth one said, “This rhyme is through.” (wiggle pinky)
My 3 year old and I made a paper chain rainbow craft for St. Patrick’s Day. This was an easy craft, but was a great opportunity for my child and I to work on color identification and rainbow color order together. We had a lot of fun making this and hope you will too!
Supplies Needed:
construction paper in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and black
scissors
glue
ribbon
If you don’t have construction paper, I also made this craft with older kids by painting white paper. Once our paint dried, we cut out our strips to make our chain.
How To:
Cut out a 2 inch x 9 inch strip of paper from each color, except black. Using the black paper, I cut out a pot shape to hold our “gold” coins. I cut a thin strip of black to be able to attach our pot to the chain.
Make your chain: Begin with red. Fold your red piece into a circle and glue the ends together. Next, take your orange piece and stick it through your red circle. Glue the orange ends together forming an orange circle. Now it is yellow’s turn. Take your yellow paper and slip it through the orange circle. Glue the ends of the yellow strip into a circle around the orange, forming your third chain link. Repeat this process with green, blue, and purple. My child saw that we had both light blue and dark blue colored paper and wanted a chain link of each color, so ours has an extra blue. We can just pretend this is our indigo!
pot of gold
Pot of gold: I cut a pot (cauldron) shape out of black construction paper. Then I traced a coin and cut out several yellow circles to be our gold. My son glued the gold onto the pot. To attach the pot to our last chain, I cut a skinny strip of black and made a chain around the purple paper. Then we glued the pot onto the strip. Add a ribbon to the top chain if you would like to hang your craft.
I love how our paper chain rainbow craft turned out! My 3 year old I enjoyed making this together and now we have a cute decoration to put up every St. Patrick’s Day. We also made a tissue paper rainbow craft together too 🙂
Make a shamrock friend craft for St. Patrick’s Day! Shamrocks are the national flower of Ireland, so what better to make in celebration of this Irish holiday. Did you know that shamrocks only have 3 leaves? The shamrock leaves are kind of heart shape so you can tell them apart from the rounded leaves of clovers. Download and print your free shamrock friend craft and count the leaves!
After you print out your template, color the large shamrock to be the body and the 4 small shamrocks for the hands and feet. I really like the my son used 2 different shades of green crayons on the body of his shamrock.
To make the arms and the legs, cut 1-inch wide strips of green construction. I cut the legs a little bit longer than the arms. Next, fold each strip like an accordion. My son initially needed some help with the folding, but he got the hang out if pretty quick.
Glue a shamrock to one end of each of the strips. Then glue on the arms and legs. We glued the arm between the middle petal and side petals and had the arms sticking up over head in an excited pose. We glued a leg to the back of each of the side petals.
Give your friend a face! My son loves googly eyes so had to add those. Then we drew a smile with a red crayon. Once your project is dry, you can play with your shamrock friend. Its legs look ready to jump around and explore with you!
Make a cute rainbow cloud craft out of a paper plate and crepe paper! I love how this craft turned out. It is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, spring, and rain / rainbow themed activities. We kept ours pretty simple, but if you want to make this project take longer, you could have your kiddo glue cotton balls all over the paper plate cloud.
Supplies Needed:
paper plate
crepe paper in red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple
markers
googly eyes (optional)
scissors
glue stick
How-To:
First cut your paper plate into a cloud shape. I drew a cloud shape first and then once I liked the shape, I cut it out.
Cut one 7-inch strip of each color of crepe paper. I measured with a ruler and drew a line. I let my son cut the strip along the line.
Glue the crepe paper onto the back of your cloud in rainbow-color order — you actually to have to glue the crepe paper in reverse order, starting with purple so when you flip it back to the front, red will then be the first color. We used a glue stick for this, but white school glue works too. Our plate was not quite wide enough for all of the crepe paper strips to fit, so we had to angle the red and the purple off to the side a bit.
To complete your craft, draw a face on your cloud. My son loves googly eyes so we used those for the cloud’s eyes.
OPTIONAL: Punch a hole at the top of your cloud. String a ribbon through the hole so that you can hang your cute rainbow cloud craft!
Extend the Learning
Pair this craft with books about COLORS and books about RAINBOWS.
Go on a color walk around your neighborhood and see if you can find all of the colors in the rainbow. Bonus points if you find them in rainbow-order!
I love St. Patrick’s Day and my family really gets into celebrating the holiday. My son is currently obsessed with leprechauns so I thought it would be fun for him to make a leprechaun paper bag puppet. Since we had all of the supplies on hand, this project was quick and easy to make.
Supplies Needed:
paper lunch bag
green construction paper
orange tissue paper
googly eyes
markers
glue stick
scissors
buttons/pom-poms
How-To:
First put your bag on top of the green construction paper and measure the bag so that your green rectangle with cover the length of the bag from its opening to under the flap fold. Glue your rectangle onto the bag, leaving the flap free. The flap is going to be the face and needs to be able to move freely with a hand inside it to look like the leprechaun is talking.
Our orange tissue paper came in precut 1-inch squares. If yours is not already in small pieces, cut yours into squares. We used 8 squares to make our leprechaun’s beard. My son glued the tissue around the flap to make the beard.
Next, measure the width of the bag on your green paper and cut out a hat shape. My son drew a black line across his hat for the buckle adornment. Glue your hat to the top of the flap.
Now you get to make your leprechaun’s face. My son stuck on googly eyes and drew a smile with a red marker.
Our leprechaun was looking a little plain, so we added 3 yellow buttons to his “coat.” My son was happy with how his leprechaun paper bag puppet looked and didn’t want to add anything else to it. I had printed off some little shamrocks and thought it would be fun to add them to the puppet, but my son was already off and playing with his puppet!
The leprechaun puppet is making “mischief” around the house and very successfully avoiding all of my son’s leprechaun traps 🙂 What trouble will your leprechaun get into? Check out my St. Patrick’s Day book recommendations to read with your puppet. It might inspire you to make some leprechaun traps of your own!
We love to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in our house. We all get dressed in green and my son makes a leprechaun trap and lots of great crafts! We haven’t caught a leprechaun yet, but they have left some gold chocolate coins and a mess around our house! For years I struggled to find St. Patrick’s Day stories for preschoolers and I am so happy that there are so many options now! Here is a list of books that will engage and delight preschoolers (and their older siblings too). There’s 17 book recommendations so you can read one everyday in March through St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th.
My son really likes this book! It inspired him to make a leprechaun trap of his own. In this book, a leprechaun visits several kid’s houses. The kids have their traps ready. Will one of them catch the leprechaun this year? Get ready for some shenanigans as the leprechaun defeats the traps and escapes. Chaos ensues as some of the traps go haywire. A silly, rhyming book that is sure to capture your child’s imagination.
2. Hooray for St. Patrick’s Day by Joan Holub–
This is a fun rhyming story with flaps for preschoolers to lift. The book is not very long, but gives preschoolers a good overall picture of the holiday. It talks briefly about shamrocks, St. Patrick, how Americans celebrate the holiday by wearing green and eating green foods, and looking for a pot of gold. It’s a cute book and my son loves pointing out that both the dog and the goldfish are wearing green 🙂 Carefully look on each page for a hidden leprechaun!
Told in a rhyming style similar to the famous The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore, this book tells the readers about the night before St. Patrick’s Day. The two kids, Tim and Maureen, are excited for St. Patrick’s Day to arrive because they want to catch a leprechaun. They set an elaborate trap and while they are waiting, they eat green foods and indulge in some holiday fun. They hear a commotion and find that they actually caught a leprechaun! Will he tell them where he buried his gold? Read this one and find out!
4. Green Shamrocks by Eve Bunting–
St. Patrick’s Day is approaching and Rabbit wants to wear shamrocks to the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Rabbit carefully grows shamrocks, making sure that the little plants everything they need. A strong wind blows the pot of shamrocks to Goat’s house. Oh no. Is Goat going to eat them? Nope, Goat is busy eating a rubber ball and an old tin can! Phew, the shamrocks are safe. Rabbit makes a shamrock chain and Goat wears the pot on his head and they head to enjoy the parade with their animal friends. Make this shamrock friend craft to go along with this story 🙂
It’s March 17th and Tucker, a cute dog, is having a bad day. In an effort to turn his luck around, Tucker rolls in a bed of four leaf clovers. A leprechaun spies him rolling around and tells Tucker that those are the leprechaun’s special lucky clovers. Now Tucker has the luck of the Irish and everything starts going his way! Tucker’s St. Patrick’s Day ends with a box full of new toys—what a lucky dog.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day and a leprechaun is causing trouble all over the school! It’s up to the Gingerbread Man to stop the leprechaun’s shenanigans. The Gingerbread Man builds a leprechaun trap in the classroom and catches him! Now that the leprechaun is caught, he promises to clean up his mess and not cause any more trouble, at least not until next St. Patrick’s Day. This book is a silly, rhyming good time! You and your kiddo will be cracking up through this story 🙂
Get ready to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Mickey Mouse and friends at the Clubhouse. They’ve got it all decorated in green and ready for a party. Oh no, Pete is causing some trouble! Will the party be ruined? Join Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto in this holiday adventure to find out!
I love this book! It was one of my favorites! Three little leprechauns have to bury the gold treasure at the end of the rainbow. They set out to find the end of the rainbow and along the way get into all sorts of mischief because that’s what leprechauns do! This book is lots of fun and will leave you giggling at the leprechauns’ shenanigans. Make an edible cereal rainbow to go along with this book!
Pete the Cat starts his own leprechaun-catching business and his friends hire him to capture some luck for them. Clover, the leprechaun, is pretty fast and Pete isn’t having any luck catching him. Pete’s friends are depending on him for help! Finally, Pete catches Clover, only to learn that you don’t need to find luck, you can create your own.
This is a cute counting story featuring 10 adorable leprechauns! Preschoolers can count and giggle along with this rhyming story. We loved “revvin’ seven” on a motorbike! Kids will like the cute, bright illustrations and the happy smiles on the leprechauns. Make a leprechaun paper bag puppet to go along with this book.
The old lady is back in another holiday book! This time she is swallowing symbols of St. Patrick’s Day such as a clover, gold coins, and a giant pot. What is she up to? At the end of the story, out of her mouth pops a rainbow and all of the St. Patrick’s Day decorations and symbols. Preschoolers will giggle at this silly lady and yell “You can’t eat that!”
Brandi Dougherty writes a cute “Littlest” series all about how even the youngest of us can help in a big way. In this St. Patrick’s Day book, Liam the leprechaun wants to help his family with their leprechaun duties. He tries helping the adults around him, but he is too little for those jobs. But when a baby unicorn is stuck, Liam is the perfect one to help free it! Filled with adorable pictures and a sweet message, you and your preschooler will enjoy reading this book together.
13. It’s St. Patrick’s Day! by Rebecca Gomez–
In this short story, preschoolers are introduced to St. Patrick’s Day through rhyming text and cute illustrations. The kids in the story wear green, decorate, eat Irish stew, listen to bagpipes, and participate in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. This book give a nice overview of the holiday celebrations at an easy-to-understand level for preschoolers. Pair this with Sesame Street’s Murray visits an Irish Dancing School short video.
Margaret and H.A. Rey’s monkey stars in this fun board book all about St. Patrick’s Day. George provides a nice overview of the holiday celebrations by dressing in green, learning some Irish dances, eating yummy traditional foods, and searching for leprechauns. We know George is a good little monkey, but he always finds trouble. With the parade coming, will George be able to stay out of trouble? Check this one out from your library to find out 🙂
St. Patrick’s Day is so much fun to celebrate that even the ocean creatures get in on the fun! In this story, Mr. Fish dons a green hat and beard to deliver holiday cheer to his friends, but he needs a pot of gold. After lots of searching, Mr. Fish finds a school of small gold-colored fish to pretend to be the gold for his pot and his costume is complete!
This book is a lovely message from a parent to child about how lucky the parent is to have the child in their life. This board book has cut-outs and chunky pieces to feel throughout the pages. It is filled with St. Patrick’s Day images like leprechauns, pots of gold, and rainbows. This sweet rhyming, short story is great for bedtime cuddles.
This is a rhyming, whimsical story of a leprechaun family celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Filled with St. Patrick’s Day symbols and lots of green, the leprechauns enjoy a fun parade before heading home for a delicious dinner. The extended family and friends keep arriving and the house is crammed full of leprechauns and they just can’t fit one more. Instead of complaining that the it’s cramped inside, the leprechauns realize that this is the luckiest St. Patrick’s Day ever because they are all together!
We hope you enjoy these St. Patrick’s Day stories as much as we do! Please check your library for these and other great books. I’ve included links to purchase these titles on Amazon. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
