St. Patrick’s Day and Colors — A Fun Way to Review Vocabulary with Young ELLs

 St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite Holidays because it combines bright visuals, playful characters, and strong cultural elements that naturally motivate young learners. LINK to the resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Colors-for-Kindergarten-ESL-15642026

Review color vocabulary while introducing holiday words in context.

🍀 Why combine colors and St. Patrick’s Day?

Color vocabulary is one of the first language sets young learners acquire. However, students need many opportunities to revisit and recycle these words in order to retain them.

By embedding colors into a St. Patrick’s Day theme, students were able to: connect familiar language with new holiday vocabulary.The shamrocks, rainbows, coins, and festive images created an immediate sense of excitement in the classroom.

🍀 Introducing vocabulary with flashcards

I started the lesson using St. Patrick’s Day color flashcards. Students quickly identified the colors while also noticing the holiday symbols.

We practiced through: choral repetition, pointing games, “What color is it?” questions

🍀 Hands-on practice with matching activities

Next, students used mats and cards to match color words with shamrock pictures. This activity encouraged reading readiness while keeping the task visual and concrete.

I love this type of activity because it supports: emergent reading, fine motor development, cooperative learning, independent practice

Students were very focused and proud when they completed their matches.

🍀 Learning through games

Games are always the highlight of any lesson. During this unit, students played:

Bingo using colored shamrocks

Memory with calling cards printed twice

Domino matching shamrock colors

These activities provided repetition without boredom and created many opportunities for spontaneous language use.

🍀 Color words cutouts

Students match the color word cutouts to the corresponding cards by reading the word and placing it over the correct picture. This hands-on activity supports word recognition, reading readiness, and vocabulary reinforcement in an engaging and meaningful way. 

The words cutouts are available at the Colors Unit resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Colors-Unit-for-Kindergarten-Holistic-English-Series-2-5956256

🍀 Independent work with worksheets

To consolidate learning, students completed coloring worksheets where they followed color words to color each shamrock correctly.

This stage allowed me to observe:comprehension of color vocabulary, listening accuracy, pencil control, task independence.

It also gave students a product they were happy to take home.

This St. Patrick’s Day and Colors lesson reminded me how powerful theme-based recycling can be. When familiar language appears in a new context, students feel successful while still learning something new.

Visit Holistic English Resources by Rosa Amelia on Teachers Pay Teachers! 🧩

Whether you're teaching vocabulary, prepositions, or celebrating special occasions, you'll find creative, hands-on activities and worksheets to make your lessons both enjoyable and effective. Here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Holistic-English-Resources-By-Rosa-Amelia