March is always a fun time of year, as it’s time to break out all of your St. Patrick’s Day music activities! I love introducing my students to the Irish culture through their music, dance, instruments, and more!
In today’s blog post, I will be sharing 5 St. Patrick’s Day music activities for the elementary music classroom that my students love and ask for every single year! Hopefully you will find some of these useful to begin incorporating into your own music classroom!
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1.St. Patrick’s Day Music Lesson: 1-2-3 O’Leary
1-2-3 O’Leary is an Irish Folk song that has a fun ball team activity you can add to it. You can find a video of a class performing it here
For this game, students will be in lines of 5-7 students, facing forward. The first student in each line has the ball. The student will bounce the ball on beat one and catch the ball on beat two.
On beats three and four, they will pass the ball over their head to the person in line behind them.
The next student repeats the same pattern (Bounce, Catch, Pass)
This pattern keeps getting repeated until the song is over- When the song finishes, the student that has the ball has to run to the end of the line.
The students will spread their legs, and the student that has the ball rolls it through their team’s legs to the front of the line. The first team whose ball makes it back to the front of the line wins! This is always one of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day music games to do with my students (I use this in 2nd & 3rd grade, when their hand-eye coordination is a bit stronger).
2. How To Catch A Leprechaun (Music Literacy Activity)
How To Catch A Leprechaun is a cute little book about a mischievous leprechaun that keeps pranking the kids in the story. I use this book with my 1st & 2nd grade students. I always try to incorporate literature into music if I can. Click here to check out books you can use in the music room for Black History Month!
I created a song to accompany the story, and will typically sing the song every other page throughout the story, so that the students know the song by the end of the book.
Once the students are comfortable with the song, we add a simple bordun & ostinato to it.
You can get access to the instrument accompaniment by clicking Here (I’ve created a resource with all of the materials already included for you!)
You can purchase the book Here
I also teach my students the Rakes of Mallow Irish Dance to close out the lesson. It is a part of the Rhythmically Moving series (CD #2) by Phyllis Weikart.
Here are the dance moves:
Students start in a circle holding hands
- Walk clockwise for 16 counts
- Walk counterclockwise for 16 counts
- Hop, Hop, Clap, Clap (4x)
- Step in for four, raise the arms up
- Step back for four, bring the arms down
- Repeat all again
3. There Once Was A Man Named Michael Finnegan (Music Literacy Lesson)
Michael Finnegan is a classic children’s song you learn when you’re little, but actually originates from Irish descent, which makes it the perfect St. Patrick’s Day music lesson!
I typically start by teaching my students the song one phrase at a time, and then speeding it up every time we sing through it, until they’re singing so fast, they can’t keep up anymore. They really enjoy it!
Once they know the song, I read them the book There Once Was A Man Named Michael Finnegan (The book is very old and out of print, so I use this video HERE to play them the read aloud version)
In the story, Michael Finnegan plays the violin, which segways perfectly into introducing the Strings Family!
I typically teach about these strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Harp, Ukulele, Guitar, & Banjo, but you can include any extras you want.
I have created a Google Slides activity to accompany this entire lesson. You can get it by clicking Here. You can also simply create it all yourself!
4. Experience St. Patrick’s Day Irish Music
A great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the music room with your students is by simply introducing them to the culture, through songs and dances. Below, you will find links to some of my favorite videos to show my students to get them accustomed to the Irish culture:
The Celtic Women’s Performing Group:
Bodhran Instrument Demonstration:
Penny Whistle Performance
5. Rattlin’ Bog
Rattlin Bog’ is a fairly popular Irish folk song. It is cumulative, meaning it adds on with every verse, and my students always enjoy it!
The song takes place in a bog, and every verse adds something to the bog (Tree, Limb, Branch, Nest, Egg, Bird, Feather, Flea), and each item has its own movement that you add to every verse, resulting in a highly entertaining song!
Click here to see a video of someone performing it with motions so you can see how it can work for your class!
I also love to use this song to teach all about Tempo- Presto, Largo, and Moderato. I will allow the students to decide how we want to sing the song, and of course they always choose Presto!
With this song, you want to make sure you have some sort of visual for them so that they do not forget any of the items in the song. Luckily for you, I have already created a resource for you that has visuals, slides for introducing Tempo, and more. Click here to purchase the resource.
And with that, we have 5 St. Patrick’s Day Music Activities you can use within your elementary music classroom! I hope some were new ideas to you!
If you would like the resources I created for all of these activities in one centralized place, you can purchase it here in my St. Patrick’s Day Music Activities Bundle on TPT
Let me know in the comments down below what some of your favorite St. Patrick’s Day music activities are this time of year!
