7 Saint Patrick's Day ESL Activities Your Students Will Actually Love

Saint Patrick’s Day is one of those themes that just gets students excited. The colors, the legends, the vocabulary, it’s the perfect excuse to make your ESL classroom a little more fun without sacrificing learning. Let’s have a look at these 7 Saint Patrick’s Day ESL activities your students will actually love.

🍀 KEY TAKEAWAYS

🐾. 7 ready-to-use Saint Patrick’s Day activities for A1–A2 ESL learners

🐾 Covers vocabulary, reading, speaking, memory & game-based learning

🐾 Works for in-person, hybrid and fast-finisher contexts

🐾 Free crossword + wordsearch to download below 👇

Whether you’re teaching 8-year-olds or teenagers, Saint Patrick’s Day lands every time. Below are the 7 activities I created for my A1–A2 bundle, with tips on how to actually use them in class, not just print them and hope for the best.

1. Vocabulary Flashcards

Best for: whole class warm-up or pair work review

If there’s one resource I always start with, it’s the flashcards. Saint Patrick’s Day has specific vocabulary students don’t encounter every day like leprechaun, shamrock, pot of gold, fiddle, and flashcards make it visual and memorable.

Classroom activity: The Relay Race

This one is loud, fast, and students BEG to play it again.

Divide the class into 2 or 4 teams.
Give them 2 minutes to study the flashcards as a group.
Then, in a queue at the board, each student writes ONE word from the flashcards, without repeating what the previous teammate wrote.
Timer: 1 minute per round. Most words on the board wins.

It activates memory, spelling and team dynamics all at once. Works beautifully as a 10-minute starter.

2. Dominoes

Best for: small groups of 2–4 students

20 cards. Simple rules. Huge engagement. Dominoes work because students have to actively recognize vocabulary, both the image AND the word, to make a match.

How to play:

Each player draws 5 dominoes. The rest become the pile.
The first player places a domino on the table.
The next player matches either the word or the image on either end.
No match? Draw from the pile.
The first player with no dominoes left wins.

It’s low-prep, high-interaction, and it runs itself once you explain the rules once.

3. I Have, Who Has

Best for: whole class, great for listening and speaking

This is a classic for a reason. Every student holds a card. One student reads theirs, and the student whose card matches has to respond. It goes around the whole class.

Example: “I have Saint Patrick. Who has snake?”

Nobody can zone out as everyone has to listen for their card. Perfect for a Friday activity or a review session before a holiday.

4. Spot & Bark (Dobble-style)

Best for: group of 3 students, fast-paced and competitive

This is my corgi-themed version of Dobble. 21 cards, 5 symbols each and every two cards always share exactly one matching symbol. Students race to spot it first and name it in English.

The beauty of this game: it’s pure vocabulary recognition under pressure. Speed, focus, and English all at once. Students don’t even realize they’re studying.

Works great as a brain break or a reward activity.

5. Kim’s Game

Best for: whole class, memory + vocabulary

Kim’s Game is a memory classic adapted for ESL. Show students a grid of Saint Patrick’s Day images. They study it carefully. Then one image disappears and they have to name the missing one in English.

🎯 Objectives:

Develop memory skills
Reinforce vocabulary
Works with the whole class simultaneously

You can make it harder by removing multiple images or by asking students to write the missing words instead of just saying them.

6. Boom Cards – Vocabulary

Best for: fast finishers, homework, or independent work

In this digital deck, students see a Saint Patrick’s Day image and have to circle the correct word from a list. Leprechaun? Shamrock? Pot of gold? They choose.

✅ Self-paced ✅ Automatic correction ✅ No printing needed

This is what I hand to fast finishers so they stay on task while I help other students. It also works perfectly as a formative evaluation or homework and students get instant feedback without waiting for you to grade anything.

7. Boom Cards – Reading Activity

Best for: reading comprehension for A1–A2 level

The topic: “What is a leprechaun?” Students read a short, level-appropriate text and then answer questions in two formats:

True or False statements
Drag and drop questions

It’s engaging, it’s differentiated, and it introduces cultural content in a structured way. Students are always curious about the leprechaun legend, this turns that curiosity into a reading exercise.

Like all Boom Cards, it’s self-correcting and can be assigned digitally.

8. Grab Your Free Saint Patrick’s Day ESL Activities

Before you go, I made two free resources you can use this week:

A Saint Patrick’s Day crossword (key vocabulary)
A Saint Patrick’s Day wordsearch (same vocabulary set)

Both are ready to print and use with A1-A2 learners.

Download your freebie

9. Need the Saint Patrick’s Day ESL Vocabulary & Games Bundle?

Loved the freebies? The full Saint Patrick’s Day Bundle covers everything: flashcards, dominoes, I Have Who Has, Spot & Bark, Kim’s Game, plus 2 Boom Card decks.