Susan Wojciechowski's picture book A Fine St. Patrick's Day [Dragonfly Books, 2008] teaches valuable lessons about competition and the importance of helping others. Elementary teachers can use this book both as a fun St. Patrick's Day read-aloud and to teach students how to identify theme and analyze the main idea or moral of a story.
How to Introduce the Book
Display the cover and invite students to share any background knowledge they have about the various ways people celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Have students identify symbols (harp, shamrock) and colors (green) associated with this holiday and discuss ways people decorate using these symbols and colors. Point out the man and ask students to think about other leprechauns and Irish magical beings as they read about this magical stranger.
As this Irish folk tale is read, tell students to pay attention to what problem the people have and how they solve it. Ask students also to think about what the author might be teaching the reader by telling this particular story.
How to Share the Book
Read the book aloud, pausing at points to make sure students are following the plot. Make sure students can identify:
- the problem the people of Tralee face at the beginning
- Fiona's suggestion for how to solve this problem
- the stranger's problem and the townspeople's initial reactions to his request for help
- how and why the people help the stranger and how he rewards them
- Fiona's final idea for how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the future
How to Help Elementary Students Identify Theme and Analyze Theme
Explain to students that a story's theme is the main point the author is making. Ask students to think about what the characters in this Irish folk tale learned. As necessary, prompt students by asking them to think about what the story says about the effects of competition or the value of helping others. Ask them what they think the stranger means when he tells Fiona she has already won.
For assessment, ask students to write a sentence that describes what they think the theme of the story might be. For example, Sometimes it is more important to help others than to help yourself. Explain that there is no one right answer, and that sometimes a story can have more than one theme.
Integrated Enrichment Activities
- For another reading activity, discuss the genre of this story and how it compares to similar folktales students have read about mysterious strangers requesting help.
- For a related social studies activity, plan and hold a class St. Patrick's Day party. Have students use the book's descriptions of decorations as inspiration for crafting their own classroom decorations. Serve lamb and boiled potatoes, like the townspeople do. While planning, encourage students to use their own ideas as well as ideas for how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day that they have read in other books, too.
- For a related art activity on color, have students arrange and use various shades of green to make pictures. Review the book spread where Fiona chooses the shade of green paint. Then, provide students with paper paint chip samples that they can cut apart and glue down, sheets of tissue paper and construction paper in different shades of green, and crayons or colored pencils in various shades of green. Have students experiment with arranging the shades in order from lightest to darkest and with creating effects by layering light and dark shades. Then, look at the names of the different shades of green and have students play with words by inventing their own names for different colors of green.
- For a related craft activity, give groups of students craft supplies such as paint, green glitter, newspaper, construction paper, glue, tape, small cardboard boxes, empty food tubs, and empty bottles and have them build a small model of what Tralee might have looked like after it was painted green.
This elementary reading lesson plan can be used as part of a unit on folktales or as a standalone St. Patrick's Day reading lesson plan. At any time, teaching students how to identify and analyze the theme of a piece will help them become more perceptive readers.
Teachers and parents can use other Irish folktales to teach other reading comprehension skills or practice writing skills, or use shamrocks in elementary math activities.
Renee Carver - Renée Carver has an Elementary Education degree and over ten years of experience writing and editing children's educational products.
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