What do an apple, clover and missionaries have to do with St. Patrick? I'm so very glad you asked because today, I'm going to share with you the simple St. Patrick's Day lesson we shared in our preschool this past week and how you can do the same with your class.
Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and like most holidays, we at Little Builders Preschool & Early Education Center, a ministry of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) San Diego/Baja, enjoyed celebrating along with everyone else. However, because we are a missionary school, this holiday means a little bit more to us. Not only did we wear green but we learned a bit about who exactly St Patrick was and why we celebrate him on March 17 each year.
Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and like most holidays, we at Little Builders Preschool & Early Education Center, a ministry of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) San Diego/Baja, enjoyed celebrating along with everyone else. However, because we are a missionary school, this holiday means a little bit more to us. Not only did we wear green but we learned a bit about who exactly St Patrick was and why we celebrate him on March 17 each year.
We started our discussion with showing a picture of St. Patrick and talked about how he was a real person who died on March 17 a long time ago. We shared how he was a missionary to a country called Ireland. We showed them where Ireland was on the map and reminds them that Ireland is part of the Continent called Europe. (We've been using our Continent Map to learn more about our world and where we are located on the planet.)
We talked a little bit about what a missionary is. We came up with some great explanations of what missionaries do; share God's love with others, build houses (one of our ministries is Homes of Hope, building homes for the poor), live in another country, etc. We reminded them that we are all missionaries because we share God's love with other people.
We talked a little bit about what a missionary is. We came up with some great explanations of what missionaries do; share God's love with others, build houses (one of our ministries is Homes of Hope, building homes for the poor), live in another country, etc. We reminded them that we are all missionaries because we share God's love with other people.
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We talked about how St Patrick used the clover or shamrock to share about the Trinity. The clover reminds us that God is Three in One; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is a large, complicated "church" word for adults to understand much less kids so we used an apple to show the preschoolers what that means. We shared how God the Father is like the skin of an apple. He protects us. We showed what an apple looks like when the skin isn't there to protect it. God the Son is like the flesh of the apple, He came to earth in the flesh as a man. God the Holy Spirit is like the seeds of an apple. The Holy Spirit helps us to grow in our relationship with God and lives inside us as our conscience.
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As a followup to our lesson, we created our own three-leafed clover. We had printed out a picture of a clover and cut it out leaving the black outline as a guide for the students. We then let the kids pick a colored piece of construction paper and instructed them to glue the shamrock down on the paper making sure that the black outline was still visible. After the clovers were glued down we gave them each a half sheet of green construction paper and showed them how to tear small pieces. We then instructed the children to glue these small torn pieces onto the clover making sure that they stay inside the lines thus keeping the shape of the shamrock.
Once we completed the clovers, we wrote God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit on each of the 3 sides of the shamrock to remind the students that God is Three in One aka the Trinity.
Once we completed the clovers, we wrote God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit on each of the 3 sides of the shamrock to remind the students that God is Three in One aka the Trinity.
This craft was a great way to practice our fine motor skills like strengthening our pincer grip from tearing, as well as hand-eye coordination, gluing, control of movement and following directions. This was also a study in patience as it takes a bit of time to tear enough pieces to fill the space and detail-oriented because we wanted to fill the entire space leaving no white parts while staying inside the lines.
If you are interested in doing this same project, download the FREE clover page below.
If you are interested in doing this same project, download the FREE clover page below.
As a bonus, we finished our day by watching this VeggieTales classic all about St. Patrick. Enjoy!
Tell me what your favorite thing to do to celebrate St Patrick's Day in the comments below. I'd love to hear about them.
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