Aren’t we lucky to have such amazing jobs? Being a teacher isn’t something to take for granted! We are lucky to be in a field where we get to reach out and have an impact on so many lives around us. Not everyone can say that! And speaking of ‘luck’ – it’s time for St. Patrick’s Day! And what better way to celebrate this lucky holiday than with some amazing mentor texts? I’ve gathered my favorite St. Patrick’s Day mentor texts to share with you! And the best part? I’ve paired each text with a reading skill that the book is PERFECT to teach with. I even created some free graphic organizers you can use with each book! Let’s go check these out!
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If you’re looking for some Spring Mentor texts to use in your classroom, I also have a great list of those books, too! (and even more free graphic organizers!)
St. Patrick’s Day Mentor Text #1: Fiona’s Luck
I absolutely LOVE this book! I love that the main character is a strong and intelligent woman who uses her witts to help out not only herself but her village! You see, Fiona lives in Ireland where there used to be an abundance of luck. That is until the leprechaun king demanded that the luck be taken and put away. This caused many problems in Ireland, including very little milk from cows and eggs from chickens! Fiona takes matters into her own hands and outwits the clever leprechaun king. She restores the luck throughout Ireland and saves the day!
This is a great book to use to teach summarizing! The plot of the book follows a traditional story structure which helps students be able to identify the important parts of the plot and use them to summarize the story!
St. Patrick’s Day Mentor Text #2: O’Sullivan Stew
This is such a fun book! It’s unique in the way that it follows a typical story structure, but it doesn’t at the same time. There are multiple smaller stories inside of the one larger 
story. Even though it’s not an actual ‘St. Patrick’s Day’ book, it takes place in Ireland and talks about the difference between luck and witt!
In the book, a rare horse is stolen from a small town by the king himself! Kate, the main character, and her family set off to get the horse, back. After getting caught trying to steal the horse, Kate uses her witts to make a deal with the king and outsmart him to set herself and her family free! This is a fantastic story to use to teach plot! Why? Because of the unique story structure, where there are stories inside of stories, this book lends itself to a great discussion about how fictional books can be different from one another in how they are written and organized.
There’s also a TON of information in this story, which is great because it allows students to practice determining important information versus interesting information. This is key to being able to reconstruct the important parts of the plot.
Want to snag these FREE St. Patrick’s Day mentor text graphic organizers? They are yours just by entering your name and email address below!
St. Patrick’s Day Mentor Text #3: Tim O’Toole and the Wee Folk
This is one of my favorite read-alouds for St. Patrick’s Day! It’s such a fun story to read out loud with your students. The characters come to life and the students get into the plot! In the story, Tim and his wife are both very poor. Tim sets out to find work and stumbles upon a clan of leprechauns. He demands their gold and in return, they give him a magical goose that lays golden eggs.
Tim brags about the goose to his friends on his return home. His ‘friends’ then decide to steal the goose and switch it with one of their own. This happens a few more times with other gifts from the leprechauns until finally, Tim realizes that it’s his friends who are actually the ones playing tricks on him! With the help of the leprechauns, Tim gets back all of his gifts! He and his wife never have to want for more!
This is a fantastic book to teach context clues! There are SO many amazing words in the book that we don’t hear too often! It’s a fantastic opportunity to have students practice using context clues to determine the meaning of the words as they read along!
St. Patrick’s Day Mentor Text #4: The Leprechaun’s Gold
What an adorable story to read in March! This book centers around two main characters, Old Pat and Young Tom. Both love to play the harp and enter a contest put on by the king
to find the greatest harpist in the land. Old Tom isn’t very kind and thinks Old Pat has no right to enter the contest, even though Pat is the one who taught Tom how to play! They both set out on the journey to the kingdom. Along the way, Tom breaks one of Pat’s harp strings to ensure him not winning. Tom leaves Pat behind. However, unknowingly to Tom, Pat meets a lovely little leprechaun! Pat helps the little leprechaun and in return, the leprechaun fixes Pat’s harp!
This story will touch your heart and the hearts of your students! It’s a fantastic book to teach compare and contrast with characterization! The two characters couldn’t be any more different! Have your students take the time to compare and contrast them to see how the author created two such unique characters!
St. Patrick’s Day Mentor Text #5: Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato
An absolute classic by Tomie dePaola! This book is all about Jamie O’Rourke, who is absolutely the laziest man in Ireland! Because of his laziness, he and his wife will have no potatoes to eat during the winter! Jamie sets off to the church to ask for help and on his way, he stumbles upon a leprechaun. Jamie demands all of his gold but instead walks away with a magic potato seed. He plants it and finds that it grows into the biggest potato anyone has ever seen!
This book is adorable and also perfect for teaching cause and effect! The book is written in a very cause and effect type of fictional structure. One event is related to and causes the next event to happen. This is a great chance to discuss cause and effect in fictional texts with your students!
St. Patrick’s Day Mentor Text #6: Too Many Leprechauns
The leprechauns in this book can’t outsmart Finn O’Finnegan! When Finn returns to his hometown, he finds that everyone is in despair due to the tapping noises of the 
leprechauns. He sets out to find them and make things right. He uses his clever witts to trick the leprechauns and drive them out of the town, leaving everyone quite, happy, and able to sleep!
This St. Patrick’s Day book is full of opportunities for students to make inferences! And a great way to practice making inferences is by having them determine if a given statement/question is literal or inferential! This puts a unique spin on your typical making inference mini-lessons!
I hope you’ve found a new St. Patrick’s Day mentor text (or two) to add to your classroom library! Make sure to hop back up and snag your FREE graphic organizers for the books as well! Want to save the post for later? Use the image below to pin the post!
