St. Patrick’s Day; the day most of us would love to be Irish! In my classroom, I always struggled to find holiday activities that were rigorous and tied to standards. We didn’t have much time for art related projects, so we had to find resources that were rich in vocabulary, illustrations, and some writing to facilitate engagement as well as higher level thinking skills. That was the impetus for our St. Patrick’s Day Digital Interactive Research Report Google Resource.

I thought it would be fun for students to learn about St. Patrick’s Day, its traditions, symbols, and why we celebrate it. I LOVE web research and you probably know by now, so I wanted students to research and discover facts about this holiday.

I started with a digital K-W-L chart to see what students know and want to learn about St. Patrick’s Day.

After researching the holiday on my home prior to creating this packet, I realized that there is a huge amount of rich vocabulary associated with St. Patrick’s Day. Students learn about the vocabulary words, provide their descriptions, and do find a quick illustration tied to this word.

Once students finished their research, I wanted them to be able to do a research report. They are familiar with this format since it is similar to the social studies and science research reports we make. Students will apply their knowledge and answer higher level thinking questions, or essential questions.