Ireland is a gorgeous and fun country to visit. I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice and would love to go back with my kids. In the states, around St. Patrick’s Day, it is normal to see lots of green and pots of gold and shamrocks. It’s also a great time to dive into this fascinating island and it’s rich history and culture. Here is everything you need to do a unit on Ireland with upper elementary schoolers.

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Visit Ireland

So, obviously going to Ireland is the best way to really experience Ireland. However, this isn’t possible in a lot of situations so here are some alternatives.

Attend an Irish Cultural Event

A lot of cities and towns have Irish Cultural Events around the time of St. Patrick’s Day. Parades, Festivals, etc. These will allow you to at least hear Irish music, maybe see some Irish dancing. You might even be able to try out or watch an Irish sport like curling.

Virtual Visit to Ireland

Another option is a virtual visit. My fourth graders loved this 17 minute YouTube visit to Ireland.
Ireland: Travel the World with Your Kids

Read about Ireland

Follow Me Around Ireland
by Wiley Blevins

I have been pleasantly surprised by this series several times. They serve as a good introduction or overview of a country, in this case Ireland. I love that they are from a child’s perspective so they include things like how kids play and what school looks like. FOLLOW ME AROUND IRELAND is a wonderful book for giving some context for all of the playful picture books on this list for St. Patrick’s Day.

Find Online

Celtic Tales: Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Wales
illustrations by Kate Forrester

This is a beautiful book of fairy tales from Celtic heritages. Obviously they aren’t all from Ireland, but when we did our Fourth Grade Unit on Ireland, or when you’re getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day you could just read the tales from Ireland. They are brief, just a few pages, which works well for a daily read aloud or before bed.

Find Online

For More Book Recommendations, check out this booklist on My Storytime Corner

Explore Irish Music

• Irish Music lesson from Music in Our Homeschool
• St. Patty’s Music Theory from My Fun Piano Studio

Art Activities inspired by Ireland

• Make St. Brigid’s Crosses using pipe cleaners from Everything Irish by AnnMarie O’Grady
• Learn to draw a Pot Gold with Art Hub for Kids
• Draw Celtic Knots with Kitchen Table Classroom.

Science & Math Activities

• Pot of Gold Multiplication Game from Hanging with Mrs. Hulsey on Teachers Pay Teachers.
• St. Patrick’s Logic Puzzles freebie from Mrs. Thompsons Treasures
• Bake Irish Soda Bread. Everyone swears by their family recipe for this, but regardless of the recipe you choose – this bread is a staple.
• Play Rainbow Game from Waldock Way
• Make Rainbow Slime from Little Bins for Little Hands

Irish Reading & Writing Activities

• St Patrick’s Day Fact vs. Opinions
• Write Irish Limericks – this was a favorite with my kids.
• Ireland Cursive Pages
• Write Your Name the Celtic Way also from Everything Irish by AnnMarie O’Grady

Learn about Irish Dance

Irish Dance is a unique form of dancing that’s a traditional part of Irish culture still thriving today. If you can’t watch Irish dancers live, here are some YouTube videos of Irish dance:

• RiverDance – you might be able to find a full show at your library as well. This was a world famous touring group of Irish Dancers.
• Trinity Irish Dance Company – this group is currently touring and is a more modern take on Irish dance.
• Leahy Call To Dance – this is a family of musicians that play in a band together. They are not professional dancers, but they dance and I love this song. It’s great fun.
• Cairde – also more modern, but still traditional. This is a group in Ireland.

If you have more time, Netflix has an animated movie full of Irish dance, RIVERDANCE: THE ANIMATED ADVENTURE which is really cute.

End of Unit Irish Program

At the end of our unit, we had an Irish themed program for friends and family. We included:

• Irish Dance
• Irish Songs on Recorder and Piano
• Irish Limericks Read Aloud
• Art Show

More Ideas for Third, Fourth and Fifth Graders

Swimming back and forth in the tank in our schoolroom is Mr. Weasley. He’s a beta fish we recently adopted from some friends who are moving. He’s bright orange which is probably the most exciting thing about him, because honestly he spends most of his day hiding under the bridge in his tank. I’m not a fish person. I’m not really a pet person. None of that matters though, because my kids are animal obsessed and they are now fish obsessed.

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There have been hints at an interest in fish in the past.

There was the season where my son was in a “fishing club” at school that basically consisted a few friends who talked about fish and fished together when they could convince their moms and sisters that this was how we wanted to spend our afternoon. This past year he also earned a fishing merit badge at scouts which included learning about fishing in depth, going deep sea fishing, and learning to cook and clean fish.

Also Read: 10 Tips for Fishing with Kids

There was the snorkeling. Our first time was to see leopard sharks and the following summer we went to La Jolla Cove, a known local snorkeling spot, to see fish swimming in the reef. I’ll admit that it was pretty awesome seeing the bright pops of color under the water.

Also Read: Snorkeling in Oahu with Kids

Now there was Mr. Weasley.

Interests have a way of popping up like this in our lives. There are hints. Here and there an interest. And then they swoop in and pull all of a kid’s (or both’s) focus. They talk, read, watch, and learn obsessively about something. I have to admit it’s actually one of my favorite parts of parenting. The interests are rarely something I expect and they always pull us in interesting directions.

In this case, we swam towards fish and dove hard.

Ideas for Learning about Fish

Our interests have a general pattern to them. My kids (each different in their learning styles) like to explore interests in a few pretty predictable ways. After ten years, we’ve hit a groove (for the most part). I think we got here mostly by me accepting whatever random thing they were interested and then throwing any ideas I could find that felt meaningful around the house and seeing what sparked further exploration. Here are some ways we learned more about fish:

Caring for Our Actual, Live Fish

This was obviously where it started and caring for their little orange fish was a big part of this learning unit. They fed him, learned how to clean his tank, watched his movements obsessively.

Books about Fish

A Place for Fish
by Melissa Stewart
Find Online

How do Fish Breathe Underwater
also by Melissa Stewart
Find Online

Hello Fish: Visiting the Coral Reef
by Sylvia A. Earle
Find Online

Papa’s Mechanical Fish
by Candace Fleming
Find Online

Fishy Watercolors

I have pretty art enthusiastic kids and so art is often part of our learning. In this case, watercolors felt like an appropriate medium for representing fish. We did this a few times.

Materials:

• Mat for under paper or other table covering
• Paper towels
• Watercolors
• Watercolor Paper
• Paint Brushes
• Cups for Water
• Pencils or Black tipped pens
• Pictures of fish or close proximity to a tank of fish (optional)

Invitation:

When we do art it is rarely the “everyone come to the table so we can paint” variety. I like to set up an invitation – a spot for each kid to work and some sort of visual prompt – and let that spark their interest. If they’re interested, then it often stays out for a few days or is set out again multiple days (depending on our currently home size / table situation). In this case I set out our Outdoor School: Animal Watching book and some other fish book near the fish tank with the supplies listed above.

Nighttime Fish Habitat Check

We have been using the Outdoor School series to inspire some of our learning about outside, including animals. (You can read more about how we used Outdoor School books last year in Fourth Grade in this post).

When we started reading about fish in Outdoor School: Animal Watching my kids were super excited to do this Nighttime Fish Habitat Check.

Directions:

• Prep your flashlight in a bag, with rocks if needed.
• Plan where to go. We went to the bay because we snorkeled there recently and saw a couple fish and a stingray. We also found it helpful that where we could go on a bridge to get above the water a little, but we did see some fish wading into the water as well.
• Put on weather appropriate clothes and bring towels (these dock & bay quick dry towels are my favorites)
• Further directions for the habitat check are in the OUTDOOR SCHOOL guide, but it’s pretty straightforward.

More Fish Field Trips

Most of these field trips were repeated multiple times during our unit or period of learning about fish. Come back to the things they enjoy. Repeat things that are interesting. Talk about them and see what new questions they have and then head back.

• Snorkeling in the ocean
• Aquarium Field Trip
• Pet Store
• Coi Fish Pond at the Japanese Friendship Garden

You May Also Like: How to Use an Adventure Journal on Field Trips

More Unit Ideas for Upper Elementary School

Photography was our first art unit of fifth grade. In a world of watercolors and oil pastels, that might seem like a strange place to start but it leaned into my kids’ natural interest in photography and our heavily science based curriculum.

As with most things, we taught photography in a variety of ways but focused on getting out of the house and practicing their photography skills in the real world. (You can read all about my philosophy on learning and teaching in Little Walks Big Adventures

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Photography 101 Essentials

You do not need a lot to teach basic photography. I recommend:

• Cameras ( my kids both have one of these cameras with a waterproof strap to hook on their wrists to limit dropping )
• Photography Journals or some other place to keep and share their photographs. We are using sketchbooks like this to paste their photos into because it will be their art journal for the whole year.
• Computer & Printer – to upload and print photos.

Photography Neighborhood Walk

Our first field trip was a walk around the neighborhood with our cameras.

Before you go:

• Go over basics of how to use your cameras. How to turn them on. How to take a picture. Go over any safety recommendations. For example, I encourage my kids to wear the wrist straps whenever they’re carrying their cameras to avoid lots of dropping.
• Talk about photography. Before we went on our Photo Walk, I had them go online and find a photo that they liked. Just one. It could be a photo of anything that interested them – buildings, flowers, animals. One photo that they found interesting. We printed it out, added it to their photo journals and then shared what they liked about the photo. This led to a conversation about some photography basics. In our case, light and perspective were both discussed. I kept this brief and basic, but we talked about how they photo might have been taken and why they liked the way the subject had been approached.
• When we went on our walk I brought these up again as they were taking photos by saying things like; I wonder how the light would change if you took a photo of that flower from a different angle? or I remember you liked the photo that was taken from a low perspective, have you tried taking a photograph of that tree from that same perspective? or I see you taking a picture of that flower, I wonder how many different interesting ways you could photograph that same flower?

Afterwards:

• We learned how to upload photos onto the computer.
• They reviewed the photos they took and chose a few favorites. Those were printed and then added to their art journals with a sentence about their photo.

Visit an Art Museum

• Visit an art gallery or photography museum.
  The Getty Center in Los Angeles has a building devoted to photography. They also have a lesson plan for middle schoolers about photography. Here in San Diego, Balboa Park has the Museum of Photographic Arts.

We visited the Getty Center which is an amazing free art museum in LA. The architecture and garden is amazing. Make sure to set aside time to explore the garden. That was the part my kids loved best. I also highly recommend the kids scavenger hunts that are available next to the front desk.

There is also a full building devoted to photography which is where we focused our art viewing for this trip.

Ideas to Increase Engagement:

• Check online before you go to see what exhibits are currently showing. Take some time to learn a little more about the artists you’ll be seeing
• Use the info on their website to create a quick scavenger hunt for the photography section of the museum.
• Another option is to have your kids look around and then sketch their favorite photography in their art journal or write about they are inspired to try after viewing the photos.

The Getty
1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049, USA
Open 10a-5p Closed Mondays
Entrance is FREE but you must pay $20 to park and have a reserved timeslot to enter.
Website

Additional Resources for Learning about Photography with Kids

• Great American Artists for Kids
  We are using this book all year to study different styles of art. It covers a range of art forms and artists throughout American history. Ansel Adams and Sandy Skoglund are the photographers included. Each chapter has a little about the featured artist and then an activity related to that artist’s work for your child to try. Buy Online
• Combine Photography and Poetry with this Best Part of Me photography project.

Read More Photography Tips

Mythology hooked my kids in fourth grade. They dove into gods and goddesses, primarily in Greek culture, but learned about mythology from around the world. Here are some of our adventures and resources as they explored the magical world of mythology.

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Field Trip to the Getty Villa

Getty Villa

While in Los Angeles for a weekend we visited the Getty Villa. This is one of the two Getty Museums in LA. It has Greek and Roman antiquities housed in a re-created Roman country home.

The Getty Villa makes a huge effort to be family friendly. There are a lot of activities for families at the museum. The super cool thing for kids who love mythology is that you can take an immersive audio tour of the museum.

My kids absolutely loved having the characters in their ears as they explored the museum on their own personal quest. Access the audio tour here or ask for more info at the information desk.

Getty Villa
17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, USA
Open 10a – 5p, Closed Tuesdays
FREE to visit, $20 to park.
Must reserve a time slot online beforehand.
Website

Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson was our way into Mythology and I expect we’re not alone. Once my kids had read THE LIGHTENING THIEF, especially my daughter, they were hooked. Suddenly they wanted to know all about all kinds of mythology.

Percy Jackson Inspired Activities

• Make sure you visit the Rick Riordan website. There is a wealth of information including these Teacher Guides.
• There is a Lightening Thief Unit Study on Proverbial Homemaker.
• Fabulous Classroom has a huge list of resources about Percy Jackson learning inspired by the release of Sea of Monsters on DVD but they would work for a general unit as well in most cases.
• Here are some fun ideas if you want to have a Percy Jackson bookclub meeting from Adventures in Mommydom.

Book Recommendations:

There are SO many Percy Jackson books and related books, but in case your voracious mythology fan needs some more ideas here are some more series we’ve enjoyed.

• Hopeless Heroes series by Stella Tarakson
• Zeus the Mighty series by Crispin Boyer
• Thunder Cluck! Chicken of Thor by Paul Tillery and Meg Wittwer
• Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
• Heroes in Training series by Tracey West
• Nico Bravo graphic novel series by Mike Cavallaro
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland

Mythology

Once my kids were exposed to mythology via Percy Jackson, they seemed to thirst to learn all they could.

Books to Read

• Usborne Illustrated Stories from the Greek Myths
• Myth Atlas: Maps and Monsters, Heroes and Gods from Twelve Mythological Worlds by Thiago de Moraes
• National Geographic Kids: Everything Mythology by Blake Hoena
• Gods and Heroes: Mythology Around the World by Korwin Briggs

Activities

• Impressive and diverse twelve week mythology study that covers all the curriculum areas on Redhead Mom.

Mythical Creatures

Mythical Creatures are some of the most fascinating parts of mythology, especially for kids who are huge animal fans like mine. If you want to go down this rabbit hole, here are some books and activities to explore.

Books to Read

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling
• Mythopedia: What A Beast by Sophia Kelly
• Miss Turie’s Magic Creatures by Joy Keller – This is a cute picture book. If you’re diving into Mythology and Mythical Creatures with an early elementary schooler I definitely recommend this one.
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland is all about dragons that have to save their magical world. These are also good on audio.

Games to Play

• Createures Drawing Deck: This is game / art activity that is loads of fun if your kids enjoy drawing.
• Runes & Regulations: This is a strategy game that’s funny and also plays with mythical creatures.

Read About More Fourth Grade Units