Looking for a fun way to introduce St. Patrick’s Day vocabulary? Â Try this fun handmade memory match game. Â It takes less than fifteen minutes to make and works great in any Spanish classroom from beginning readers to high school.
To begin, I grabbed a couple packages of these sparkly foam shamrocks from my local Deals. Â At home, I got out my Word Reference app to double-check spellings and look up words I didn’t know…for example I didn’t know the Spanish word for Leprechaun! Â Here is the list of vocabulary words I chose:
trébol (TREH-bohl) = clover/shamrock
trébol de cuatro hojas (…day KWAH-troh OH-hahs) = four-leaf clover
duende (DWEN-day) = leprechaun
olla de oro (OH-yah day ORE-oh) = pot of gold
arco iris (AHR-koh EE-rees) = rainbow
suerte (SWEHR-tay) = luck
suertudo (swehr-TOO-doh) = lucky
afortunado (ah-for-too-NAH-doh) = lucky
Irlanda (eer-LAHN-dah) = Ireland
irlandés (eer-lahn-DEHS) = Irish
verde (BEHR-day) = green
Once you have your list of words chosen, simply write each Spanish and its corresponding English word on the back of each clover.
To play the game, lay out each clover face-down. Â Have students take turns turning over two clovers at a time. Â If they turn over a Spanish word and the matching English word they have a match! Â After finding a match they can have another turn. Â The child with the most matches wins!
I played this game with my brother and sister, both of whom are in high school, and we had a blast. Â Obviously the game is geared more towards children, but since the vocabulary was new to them it was still a challenge. Â This game can be used with any set of new vocab and works great for those students who prefer not to practice vocab with flashcards.
With my little kiddos at home, I chose ONE new St. Patrick’s Day word to teach them and made a coloring sheet for it. Â You can print one for your own kiddos here. Â This new word is also in our Color of the Month book, which you can also print out and color. Â Below is the one my two-year-old colored. Â He really enjoys coloring these days and works to stay in the lines (on his own accord). Â I let him choose his own colors and medium. Â It is fun to see his creativity at work. Â If your children or students color one I’d love to see a picture of it! Â You can post it to my Facebook page to share here.
If you would like more St. Patrick’s Day activities in Spaish check out these awesome resources!
Check out these bilingual activities for celebrating St. Patrick’s day from Mommy Maestra.
Spanish Playground has a great list here of FREE St. Patrick’s Day printables.
Modern Mami has also compiled a great list of activities and crafts for St. Patrick’s Day here.
