Saint Patrick's activities for teachers and parents

Saint Patrick's Day is only a week away, and kids in Montreal are already abuzz about Sunday's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Teachers and parents can use Irish-themed printables to keep kids interested in math and language arts activities. Look for printable worksheets and crafts suitable for preschoolers and primary aged children among the resources here, as well as unit studies and project ideas for older students.

• Saint Patrick's Resources from Education World: Lesson plans, crafts and recipes, songs, games, clip art, Celtic music, social studies resources and more
• Saint Patrick's Resources from The Teacher's Guide: Lesson plans and units, math worksheets, interactive whiteboard presentations, science, recipes, crafts, and a 24-part script for a class play
• Saint Patrick's Activities from First-School.ws: Preschool and kindergarten activities, including skills development (pre-writing and pre-math skills, shapes, colours, patterns, penmanship)
• Saint Patrick's Worksheets from DLTK: Sheets for primary students include anagrams, word ladders, word puzzles, math worksheets for grades one through five, math word problems, penmanship tracers, and themes writing paper
• Saint Patrick's Printables from About.com: Ten activities including colouring pages, Irish-themed stationery, and word puzzles for primary students
• Saint Patrick's Day Creative Writing/History Unit from Connect the Thoughts: Three-week unit study for older students
• St. Patrick's Day From Compass Point Books: A colourful 24-page e-book about the history and customs of the holiday
• Saint Patrick Mini Books from The Whole World Publishing: Colourful mini-books for lapbooking and other projects – includes maps, quotes, images and more

Montreal's Saint Patrick's Day Parade begins at 12 noon on March 14, 2010. The parade runs along Ste. Catherine West, from Fort to Aylmer. While the parade is a celebration of the Irish community in Montreal, expect to see entrants from other populations as well as from outside the city.

Some of the entrants that won awards at last year's parade include the Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch (RHR) of Canada, the Marie-Claude Rousseau School of Irish Dance, Dawson College, Les Éclairs du Québec, the RCMP and the Canadian Forces, the Karnak Shriners and Queen's University Bands.

As Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend, please remember to "spring forward" overnight from Saturday to Sunday, so you won't miss any of the festivities!