How do I prepare and use St. Patrick's Day games to print?

What the St. Patrick's Day pack includes

The pack has three things to print: a 28-card deck, a Lucky A-to-Z answer sheet and a gold-coin record. It suits a classroom party or a party at home. The deck has 12 challenge cards, 10 trivia cards and 6 trick-question cards. The trivia and trick-question cards have answers printed on them for the host. Challenge cards have no answers. Players simply do the action written on the card and earn the reward it states.

The cards and sheets support four games: coin toss targets, rainbow relay, Lucky A-to-Z and a trick-question round. Players earn coins in all four games and can spend them at a prize bowl at the end. You don't have to play all four. Coin toss and the relay need open floor space. The word game and the question rounds can be played sitting down.

The page also has a card picker that shows a random card. The picker can show a card that has already come up. To go through every card without repeats, shuffle a paper deck and set used cards aside.

How to print and prepare the cards and sheets

Both print controls, Print all 28 next to the card picker and Print cards and game sheets in the navigation, open your browser's print dialog for this page. There is no separate PDF and no ready-cut version. Look at the print preview before you print. Use card stock if you have it. Ordinary paper also works.

Keep one uncut copy for yourself. When you cut the player cards apart, keep each question with its answer until you have covered the answer. You can fold a paper flap over each answer, or copy just the question onto a separate player card. Printing does not hide the answers for you.

Sort the deck into challenges, trivia and trick questions. Shuffle each group separately. Number the six rainbow arcs 1 to 6 as well as coloring them, so players who have trouble telling colors apart can follow the route by number.

Numbers on the arcs are one way to avoid relying on color alone. The same idea works on other pieces: color-blind-friendly party games often pair each color with a number, shape or word on both the card and the item it matches. Keep the 1-to-6 arc numbers as they are.

How many copies and supplies you need

Count everyone who will actually play. That includes the birthday child or your own children if they are joining in. Don't count adults who are only reading cards or keeping score. One shared deck serves up to 20 players in five teams of up to four.

Once you have the real number of players, check whether five teams of up to four suits both the group and the room. The guide Which party games work for our group size? explains why you count adults who will play and leave out adults who are only supervising.

For the active games, gather a three-minute timer, pencils and tape. You also need three paper target rings, six paper rainbow arcs, a spoon for each relay team and a separate set of five coins for throwing. Set out the prizes and write the prices where everyone can see them.

Check the number of players and any food needs before you buy chocolate coins or food prizes. If chocolate isn't suitable for every player, use nonfood coins and prizes. Ask families about specific items where needed.

How to play coin toss and rainbow relay

Coin toss: tape three paper rings to the floor at 3, 5 and 8 feet from the throwing line. Label them 1, 2 and 3 coins. Each player throws the five throwing coins from behind the line. Under these suggested house rules, a coin scores only if it comes to rest fully inside a ring, and a miss earns nothing. Example: two coins in the 3-foot ring and one in the 5-foot ring earn 1 + 1 + 2 = 4 coins. Pick up the throwing coins before the next player's turn. Play two turns each, or one if time is short. Players keep what they earn, and there is no overall toss winner.

Rainbow relay: set out the six numbered arcs in a straight line, 4 feet apart. That makes 20 feet from the first arc to the last, plus extra room at each end. Each team gets a spoon and one coin. A runner carries the coin on the spoon to arc 6, comes back and hands over to the next teammate. If the coin drops, the runner picks it up, goes back one arc and carries on. A drop near the start means going back to arc 1. The first team with everyone back and seated wins the heat, and each member of that team gets 2 coins. Tied teams share the win. Run two heats. If teams have different numbers of players, agree on the same number of trips for every team, and let someone on a smaller team take an extra turn.

If the spoon-and-coin run doesn't suit your players or supplies, other relay race games can replace it. Each comes with its own setup and rules, such as a cup-stacking relay played at one table without an out-and-back route, so don't mix their rules into the rainbow relay.

If you don't have space for the toss lanes or the full 20-foot relay, don't squeeze them in. Play the seated games instead. Loose paper markers may not stay put outside on a windy day.

How to play Lucky A-to-Z and the card rounds

Lucky A-to-Z: give each team a sheet and a pencil, pick one category for everyone and start a three-minute timer. Category ideas include things that are green, lucky charms or things in a leprechaun's workshop. Teams try to write one answer for each letter. Q, X and Z are free spaces. For things that are green, a team might write apple, broccoli and cucumber. Those are only examples, not an answer key. Under the suggested house rules, each accepted answer that no other team wrote for that letter scores 1 point. Repeated answers, blanks and free spaces score nothing, so the most a team can score in a round is 23. Every member of the top team earns 1 coin, and tied teams share the reward. Play a second round with a new category on a fresh sheet.

A standard category word game works the other way round: everyone uses one shared letter and answers several categories. Lucky A-to-Z uses one category across the whole alphabet. If you'd rather play the standard version, treat it as a replacement round with its own rules, not a change to this sheet.

Trick questions: read a card aloud and give the teams ten seconds to talk it over. Take every team's answer, then read out the printed answer. Each member of every team that answered correctly gets 2 coins, so there's no advantage in shouting first. Go through all six cards once. One answer, short on luck, is a joke you can't work out from facts. You can read that punchline together without scoring it. The leprechaun answers come from stories, so keep the in-stories wording when you read them aloud.

Trivia and challenge cards fill gaps between turns. A correct trivia answer earns 1 coin for each member of the team. A finished challenge earns 1 coin for the player who did it, and passing costs nothing. You don't need to use every card.

How the gold coins and prize bowl work

Every player starts with 4 coins. Explain the rewards before the first turn. At the end, first pick costs 6 coins, second pick costs 4 and each later pick costs 2. As a suggested house rule, offer first pick to the player with the highest balance who wants to pay 6. Then offer second pick to the next player who wants to pay 4. Draw names to break ties. Give everyone one pick before anyone gets a second.

Explain the prize order and how ties are broken before the first turn, so balances don't cause arguments at the end. If spending coins on picks feels too competitive for your group, ideas for keeping party games friendly include simpler rewards that don't depend on who saved the most.

On the coin record, each player's final balance is opening coins + coins earned − coins spent. If you've promised every player something to take home, set those items aside separately, whatever the scores and even if someone sits out.

Example one-hour schedule

This example assumes the cards and play areas are ready before players arrive. The times include explaining the games, turns and moving between games: 12 + 15 + 15 + 18 = 60 minutes.

• 0:00–0:12: Hand out the opening coins, explain the rewards, show a throw and play coin toss (up to two turns each).
• 0:12–0:27: Show the relay route and the dropped-coin rule, then run two heats. Draw a challenge card while teams reset if there's time.
• 0:27–0:42: Play two Lucky A-to-Z rounds. Each round has three minutes of writing, and the other nine minutes go to instructions, comparing answers and changing categories.
• 0:42–1:00: Read the six trick questions, add up the coins and count balances, then save the last few minutes for prize picks and collecting the cards.

How to adapt the games for younger children and mixed ages

Trivia is suggested for ages 7 and up. Younger children can still join by answering with their team. Give younger throwers a closer line aimed at the 3-foot ring and show them a practice throw first. Let younger children walk the relay route instead of running.

Checklist before players arrive

• Print preview checked; deck, A-to-Z sheets and coin records printed
• Uncut host copy set aside; answers covered on player cards
• Cards sorted into challenges, trivia and trick questions, and each group shuffled
• Players counted and teams of up to four planned
• Timer, pencils, tape, rings, numbered arcs, spoons and five throwing coins ready
• 4 opening coins per player, plus extra coins or space on the record for earnings
• Prizes counted, prices posted and tie rule agreed
• Space checked for the toss and the 20-foot relay, or the seated games chosen instead

Sources and further reading

• St. Patrick's Day games to print

Related questions

• How do you play a category word game?
• How do I host a trivia game for a mixed group?
• How can children of different ages play party games together?
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