Clap in sixes1 minute. Count to 6 over and over, fast and even. Clap on every number, and stomp one foot on 1 and on 4 as well. Once the class has it, clap the six with two fingers on your palm so that only the stomps can be heard. Then bring the loud claps back.
Carry the pot of gold1 minute. The pot is full, and it is heavy. Bend your knees, wrap both arms around it and stand up slowly. Carry it for 8 slow steps on the spot, leaning back a little. Set it down, look over each shoulder to check that nobody saw, and slide it under your desk with one foot.
Dig for gold1 minute. The gold is buried right where you are standing. Push a pretend spade in with one foot, lift the earth and tip it to the side, 5 times. Swap feet and dig 5 more. Then kneel, brush the soil away with both hands and hold up one coin to the light.
Go on green1 minute. The teacher names things one at a time: grass, a fire truck, a frog, snow, a lime, a banana, a pea, the night sky. If the thing is green, run on the spot until the next word. If it is not, stand still. A child names the last five.
Hammer the shoe1 minute. In the old stories a leprechaun is a shoemaker. Sit on the front of your chair and rest a pretend shoe on one knee. Tap it with a tiny hammer 10 times, pull a thread through with a long arm 5 times and buff it with your sleeve. Then make the other shoe on your other knee.
Leprechaun tiptoe2 minutes. The teacher stands at the board, facing away. The class tiptoes on the spot beside the desks. Whenever the teacher turns around, every leprechaun must already be crouched down small and still. Anyone caught moving sits down and helps the teacher to watch.
Lion and lamb1 minute. An old saying has March come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. When the teacher says lion, march on the spot with stomping feet and big swinging arms. When the teacher says lamb, take small soft skipping steps. Switch 8 times, and finish as lambs.
Up and over the rainbow1 minute. Start in a low crouch at the foot of the rainbow. Climb it one color at a time and say each color as you rise: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. At violet you are on your tiptoes with your arms high. Slide down the far side to a crouch in one long whoosh.
Gold hunt games 6
Elbow gold1 minute. An eraser is your gold coin. Lift one elbow until it points straight ahead, with that hand up by your ear, and balance the gold on the flat of the elbow. Drop the elbow, sweep the same hand forward and snatch the coin out of the air. Take 5 tries with each arm.
Find the gold coin3 minutes. Tear a circle from scrap paper for the coin. One child waits by the door with eyes covered while the teacher puts the coin somewhere in plain sight. The class guides the seeker by drumming fingers on the desks: softly when the seeker is far away, louder when close. The finder hides it next.
Green hunt from your seat1 minute. Stay in your chair. Look around and make a tally mark on scrap paper for every green thing you can see: a book spine, a leaf, a marker, a stripe on a shoe. When the clock stops, compare tallies with a neighbor and name one thing the other missed.
Put the rainbow in order3 minutes. Write the 7 colors of the rainbow on 7 sheets of paper, one on each. Hand them to 7 children in a mixed-up order. Without talking, the class points and waves to move them into a line from red to violet. Then say the whole order together: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
Rainbow line-up3 minutes. Look at the color of the top you are wearing. Line up along the wall in the order of the rainbow: reds first, then orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Tops that are white, gray, black or brown are the clouds and stand at the far end. Whoever is wearing green takes one step forward.
Ten flips3 minutes. Tear a paper circle for a coin and write H on one side and T on the other. Guess how many times out of 10 it will land with H up, and write the guess down. Flip it 10 times onto your desk and keep a tally. Compare your count with your guess and with a neighbor's count.
Jig steps 8
Back-to-back circle2 minutes. Stand facing a partner with your arms folded. Walk forward past each other's right shoulder, step sideways behind your partner's back, and walk backward to where you started. You never turn around, so you face the same wall the whole time. Do it 4 times, then pass left shoulders.
Clap in sixes1 minute. Count to 6 over and over, fast and even. Clap on every number, and stomp one foot on 1 and on 4 as well. Once the class has it, clap the six with two fingers on your palm so that only the stomps can be heard. Then bring the loud claps back.
Elbow swing2 minutes. Find a partner and hook right elbows. Skip around each other for 8 counts while the class claps the beat. Let go, hook left elbows and skip 8 counts the other way. On the teacher's call of new partner, wave goodbye and hook elbows with someone else.
Front tap, back tap, three steps1 minute. Put your hands on your hips. Tap your right heel on the floor in front of you, then your right toe behind you, then take three small steps on the spot. Do the same starting with your left foot. Say it as you dance: heel, toe, one-two-three. Keep it up for 8 rounds.
Heel clicks1 minute. Take one step to the right, hop and tap your heels together in the air, then land softly on both feet. Try one to the left. If jumping clicks are hard, rise onto your tiptoes and tap your heels together there. Do 5 clicks each way.
Jig in a circle1 minute. Hands on hips. Take 8 light skipping steps that carry you once around your own spot, and finish facing the front again. Then take 8 skips around the other way. Do both twice, and try to land the eighth skip exactly on the teacher's eighth clap.
Point and lift1 minute. Stand tall with your arms straight down by your sides. Hop on your left foot and point your right toe to the floor in front. Hop again and lift your right knee. Do 4 on that side and 4 on the other, and keep your arms still the whole time.
Seven to the side1 minute. Stand where you have room on your right. Take 7 quick little steps to the right, counting aloud, and clap on 7. Take 7 back to the left and clap. Do it 4 times, a little faster each time, and keep your steps small enough to stay in your own space.
Shamrocks and rainbows on paper 9
A very small door3 minutes. A leprechaun's front door is at the bottom of a tree. Draw the door and everything a very small person would want around it: a knocker, a mat, a mailbox, a lamp. Add one clue about who lives there. A neighbor guesses what the clue means.
Flip the gold triangle3 minutes. Draw 10 coins in a triangle that points up: a row of 1, then rows of 2, 3 and 4. The puzzle is to make the triangle point down by moving only 3 coins. Circle the 3 you would move and draw arrows to where they go. The three corner coins are the ones.
Hide a four-leaf clover3 minutes. Cover a sheet of scrap paper with small clovers that have three leaves each, about 15 of them, at every angle. Give exactly one of them a fourth leaf. Swap papers with a neighbor and see who finds the lucky one first.
Leprechaun handwriting2 minutes. Write your first name as small as you possibly can with a sharp pencil. It still has to be readable. Swap papers with a neighbor. If they can read it without help, try again even smaller. The smallest name that can still be read wins the table.
Over-and-under braid3 minutes. Draw two wavy ribbons that cross each other 5 times along the width of your paper. Now make them weave. At the first crossing, erase the lines of one ribbon so that it goes under the other. At the next crossing, it goes over. Keep taking turns to the end.
Rainbow in pencil3 minutes. Draw a rainbow of 7 bands with one pencil and no colors. Shade the outside band as dark as your pencil will go and the inside band so lightly that it can hardly be seen, with five steps of gray in between. Then label the bands in order from the outside in, starting with red and ending with violet.
Shamrock from three hearts2 minutes. Draw a heart. Draw a second and a third beside it so that the three points meet in the middle. Add a curved stem from that middle point. That is a shamrock. Draw two more, one very large and one very small, and give the smallest a face.
Tear a shamrock3 minutes. Fingers do the cutting here. Crease one sheet of scrap paper down the middle. Starting at the crease, tear half a shamrock: half of the top leaf, one whole side leaf and half of the stem. Open it slowly. If the leaves came out as different sizes, keep it anyway.
Treasure map of the classroom5 minutes. Choose a spot in the room where you would hide a pot of gold, and keep it secret. Draw a map that starts at your own desk and gets there in steps and turns, such as 6 steps toward the door and then left at the bookshelf. Mark the spot with an X. A neighbor follows the map with a finger and names the spot.
How it works
These St Patrick's Day brain breaks for kids are short activities on the page, not a video: leprechaun moves, gold hunts, jig steps and shamrock drawings for the week of March 17.
Read the full guide
Most steps take a minute, most hunts take three
The jig steps are short and counted, so one can be taught in the minute or two its timer runs. Most gold hunts run longer. In Find the gold coin one child seeks while the class helps: read the line aloud, send the seeker to the door, then start the timer over it.
March brain breaks beyond the day itself
For a room that is not marking the day, try Lion and lamb, Clap in sixes, Ten flips or Over-and-under braid: none mentions it. In the menu that reads All brain breaks, Jig steps holds eight step patterns, done beside the desk or with a partner.
Wearing green is a custom of the day. Rainbow line-up gives every top a place, so nobody is left out.
Questions and answers
Are these St Patrick's Day activities religious?
No. They are about what children see on the day: green, shamrocks, rainbows, a pot of gold and the leprechaun of folklore. No line tells a story about the saint or mentions a service.
What is the answer to Flip the gold triangle?
Move the three corner coins. The two ends of the bottom row go up beside the row of two, and the top coin goes to the bottom. The triangle of ten then points down.
Which ones need a partner?
Elbow swing and Back-to-back circle are danced in pairs. Hide a four-leaf clover, Treasure map of the classroom and Leprechaun handwriting are swapped with a neighbor. The other jig steps are done alone beside the desk.