Need a St. Patrick’s Day game sure to please kids and grown-ups alike? Set-up this simple and affordable Pot O’ Gold Coin Toss for a festive, fun-filled kids party game to keep your March 17th celebration entertained!

St. Patrick’s Day Game for Kids… and Grown Ups Too!

Around here, St. Patrick’s Day is a BIG deal. It’s a big celebration in towns throughout New England, marked by parades and events. And in a house with two Notre Dame alums, it only adds to the party.

We celebrate every year by showing our Irish pride, dressed in our green and shamrocks, and hit up the local parade. After we often gather with friends to celebrate with some corned-beef and cabbage, a green beer or Guinness or two, and some festive cupcakes for the kids. And since no party is complete without a party game, here’s a simple one for St. Patrick’s Day.

Pot O’ Gold Coin Toss

The best part about this St. Patrick’s Day game is it literally cost me $2. You can find the green ‘pot o’ gold’ and plastic gold coins at your local Dollar Store, Wal-Mart or party store. Feel free to use a black one leftover from Halloween too. That’s essentially all you really need, though we added some numbered shamrocks for an additional challenge and preschool learning opportunity.

Supplies

Plastic green cauldron
Gold coins
Green construction paper
Marker

How to Play

For the preschool version of this St. Patrick’s Day game, cut out 4 shamrock shapes from your green construction paper or you can find some pre-cut shamrocks here. Label them from 1 to 4. Place your green plastic cauldron in the center of the room. Then, tape the numbered shamrocks around the cauldron.

Place them in order, from 1 to 4, with each number successively further away from the ‘pot o’ gold’, increasing the challenge as they step from number to number. We started with the number 1 about a foot from the pot, and ended with number 4 about 4 feet from the pot, but you can adjust as is appropriate for your competitors’ age group.

You can keep score, granting points equivalent to the numbered shamrocks for successful tosses into the pot. Or just encourage your players to successfully toss from each spot, challenging them more and more as they move up to the next number.

Gross Motor Skills

Encourage your players to toss gold coins underhanded into the pot. Younger children have a tendency to always want to throw overhanded, giving them less ability to aim and control the direction of their throw. Practice working on stepping with their opposite foot while tossing the coin underhanded in a smooth, fluid motion.

Number Recognition and Formation

And because all our games are ultimately about LEARNING through play, there has to be some of that as part of our St. Patrick’s Day game too. Work with your younger players on recognizing and naming the numbers on the shamrocks as they move from 1 to 4.

You can even encourage them to trace the numbers with their fingers or with their gold coins.

More St. Patrick’s Day Games and Fun

Looking for more festive, St. Patrick’s Day games and fun? Try our Search for Gold Under the Rainbow sensory play set-up. You can also make your own DIY Shamrock Wreath with this quick 2-minute tutorial.

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For an endless supply of games for kids and all our favorite St. Patrick’s Day ideas, be sure to follow our Games for Kids and St. Patrick’s Day boards on Pinterest. And be sure to save this one too!

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