St Patrick’s Day Drama Activities
Game: Rainbow
Age: 4 years+
Minimum number of participants: 7
Resources needed: Clear space and a chair for each student – if you do not have chairs you can use sheets of paper or cushions.
Other Benefits: This is a well-known game which can also be used very effectively as a listening game or an observation game.
Instructions: All the children sit in circle on a chair or a cushion. The teacher chooses three or more different colours of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and goes around the circle giving each person the name of a colour in a particular order, for example, red, orange, yellow. A child is then chosen, or volunteers, to go into the centre of the circle. His/Her chair is taken away. The child in the centre calls out the name of one of the three colours.. If the child in the centre says red then all the reds change place, if s/he says yellow, all the yellows change place and if s/he says orange, all the oranges change places. If s/he says rainbow then everyone changes places. The child who is left without a chair goes into the centre for the next round.
Game: What’s the time Mr. Leprechaun ?
Age: 3 years+
Minimum number of participants: 4
Resources needed: Clear space.
Other Benefits: This is a popular traditional children’s game that can also be used very effectively in a drama session as a warm-up game. This game also helps children with their listening and co-ordination skills.
Instructions: One child is chosen or volunteers to be Mr. or Ms. Leprechaun and stands at one side of the clear space. His/Her back is to the other children, who are standing at the opposite end of the space. The rest of the children shout out: “What’s the time Mr. /Ms. Leprechaun ?” The leprechaun does not turn around. He/she replies in a leprechaun like voice: “four o’clock.” The children walk forward the number of steps the leprechaun calls out (in this case, four). The children ask again: “What time is it Mr./Ms. Leprechaun ?” The leprechaun replies: “five o’clock.” The children take five steps forward. The children continue to ask the question and to walk the appropriate amount of steps forward. Eventually, when the leprechaun thinks that the children are near enough he/she will say: “Dinnertime!” Then the leprechaun turns around and chases the children. They have to try to rush back to their starting place. If Mr./Ms. Leprechaun catches one of them before they reach home, that child is the wolf in the next game.
Game: Colours of the Rainbow
Age: 4 years+
Minimum number of participants: 2
Resources needed: Clear space.
Other Benefits: This game helps the child hone their observation skills but it can also be used as a fun warm up or movement activity.
Instructions: The teacher calls out a colour of the rainbow, for example blue. The children must then look for an object in the clear space that is blue. All the children must run to the blue object. The last person to get there is out.
Game: Leprechaun’s underpants
Age: 5 years+
Minimum number of participants: 3
Resources needed: Clear space.
Other Benefits: This helps to improve eye contact and children body language. It also stimulates the imagination as the children have to come up with unique questions.
Instructions: The children sit in a circle. One child sits in the middle of the circle and everyone in the circle takes it in turns to ask him/her a question, for example: “What did you have for breakfast?” The child in the middle is only allowed to answer “Leprechaun underpants’ and they must not laugh or smile. If they laugh or smile they have to change places with the child whose question made them laugh.
If you want a copy of Irish Legends on Stage click here.
St Patrick – A play for children based on an Irish Legend
Narrator 1: Once upon a time, there was a boy called Donal