St. Patrick's Day Lucky Me Art

Are you looking for an eye catching display for St. Patrick's Day?

This St. Patrick's Day art and writing project will have everyone stopping to take a look.

This project is also a great way to get your students reflecting on their life and all they have to be lucky for. 

You will need at least 2 work periods to complete the entire project. 

1.) For the first period, I read them a mentor text (see below) and we talk about the great things, people, moments they have had in their lives. This leads to the writing activity (see below for free templates). 

While students are busy writing about all the things they are lucky for, I take the pictures of their hands.

Tip: When taking the pictures of their hands have them put hands on top of a white background (I use poster board) and also have a sticky note with their name on it off to the side of the picture (it will be cropped out).

Before day 2 you will have to print out your photos in black and white. See the free download for tips and templates. 

2.) This part can be done on the same day at students put together their picture, writing, and shamrock. If you have never used oil or chalk pastels before you will want to teach your students how to blend the color by doing a darker outline and then dragging the color towards the middle of the shamrock. 

I have them cut out the shamrock shape AFTER they have blended their color so they don't get any of the pastel on their desk. It will not matter if they go outside the lines because it is going to be cut out. 

Once the shamrocks are colored and cut out, bend the petals up so that it gives the shamrock some dimension and it doesn't lie flat on the hands photo.

Glue the shamrock on to the photo. 

Have students glue or staple their finished writing paper on the photo paper. I had students glue them just below the photo. 

I also trimmed all the writing papers so there were no extra lines after what they had written. 

FREE Templates and Tips:

To help you out with this project and make prep much quicker I have created a pdf file with photo taking/editing and printing tips along with templates of the writing paper and shamrocks. 

The writing paper comes with intermediate and primary lines so you can use it no matter what grade you teach!

Mentor Text Idea:

I love using picture books as mentor texts for both Writing and Art and a few years back I found the perfect one for this project. It is called Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman (aff. link). It is a folktale about how Fiona tries to bring the luck back to Ireland after a leprechaun king takes it away. 

I would wish you luck with this St. Patrick's Day art and writing project but I know you will rock it!

Cheers,

If you are looking for more St. Patrick's Day activities, check out these FREE differentiated alphabetical order worksheets. Included is a link to get a Google Slides option.