St. Patricks Day Crafts and Activities
Pasta Art" for Any Holiday
Cathy T. cooks up this tactile art experience that encourages color recognition and says, " You can adapt this activity to almost any holiday." I have done Valentine hearts and green shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.
Materials:
Pasta cooked, paper, food coloring.
Follow the cooking instructions on a box of pasta (spagetti works best) Drain. Add food coloring to get the desired color. The pasta should be SLIGHTLY wet. Mix with a spoon.
Have a heart or a shamrock drawn out on a large piece of paper. Have the children take one strand of spagetti at a time and put it on the paper. Press gently so that the pasta adheres.
NO GLUE NEEDED.
THE STARCH IN THE PASTA WILL MAKE IT STICK :)
Let the project dry over night. Enjoy!
Materials:
Paper plate, watercolor paints, black paint, cotton, glue, yellow
circles for gold coins, large piece of construction paper.
Description:
Cut paper plate in half. Paint one half black (this will be the
"pot") and set aside. Cut arch in other half of paper plate to form rainbow shape and paint with watercolors. When dry, glue onto larger sheet of construction paper with the "pot of gold" at one end of rainbow. Add cotton "clouds" to end of other rainbow side and yellow circles or "gold coins" to top of black pot.
Comments: The completed project is nice because it ties in both the rainbow and the pot of gold. Discussions included the colors of the rainbow and the colors they wanted their rainbow to be and what they would do if they found the pot of gold.
Puppy Shamrocks
Shannon helps preschool children put together a puppy using pre-cut shamrock shapes.
Materials:
Green, black, and red construction paper.
Description:
Take a pre-cut shamrock and turn it upside down. Next glue on wiggly eyes . Cut out a nose from black construction paper, cut out a tongue using red construction paper. Now, glue on a nose towards the bottom of the shamrock, glue the tongue on the
under side of the shamrock so that it sticks out where the petals of the shamrock meet. If desired place a pre-cut bone on for a bow.
*Marble paint green
Using three marbles roll green, yellow, and white, let dry. Paste on
shamrocks, and lace around the edges.
*Hide the Gold
Have everyone sit in a circle on the floor. Get a piece of string long
enough for all the players to hold onto. Slip a ring on the string and tie
the ends. Choose one player to stand aside and be the guesser. When that
person says "Go" everyone in the circle starts passing the ring along the
string. When the guesser is ready, he or she calls out "stop". The players
hold onto the string; the one who has the ring tries to keep it hidden. Then
guesser tries to guess the person who has the ring. If the guesser is
correct, he or she gets to join the circle and the person who was holding the
ring steps out and becomes the new guesser.
Leprechaun People:
We also did these! So Adorable! Take a foam cup- small one or medium. Fill
with dirt and add grass seed. Watch hair grow kinda like a chia pet. Add a
face to the cup. To keep the people looking neat- I always had the children
give their people haircuts once a week! Kids loved watching them grow
SPONGE PAINTED SHAMROCKS
Cut out shamrocks from sponges & let the kids dip in green paint & press onto
paper.
SHAMROCK CRAYON RUBBING
Using a piece of cardboard or matt board draw on some shamrocks with a pencil.
Now take some glue in the bottle & outline the shapes with glue.Let the glue
dry.
Now take some paper & lay it on top of the shamrocks & rub it with the side
of a green crayon.My kids like to call this magic when the design appears.
SHAMROCK SODA BOTTLES
Fill with water & add some green food coloring,Easter grass,green & silver
glitter, green sequins, buttons, plastic shamrocks that are cut out for party
confetti you can usually find this @ Michael's in the party section.You can
also cut up some of that green FUN FOAM.Add anything that is green & won't
dissolve in the water.Put on the lid tightly.Wrap the lid with duck tape
several times or hot glue.
Games/Activities/Art
LeprTwo weeks ago, a leprechaun "lost" all his gold in our play spaces, he left us his pot and a reward notice saying that if we could find all his gold and refill his pot by St. Pats Day, he would leave us a reward. The children have been having a wonderful time finding the gold (gold spray-painted items - anything I could think of - marbles, rocks, buttons, keys, feathers, spoons etc.). Each time they find a piece of gold, they place it in the leprechauns pot and I give them a "Lucky Shamrock" sticker to put on their cubby name label (we count how many items we have and how many stickers each child has - Math). On St. Pats Day, the leprechaun will return at nap time and pick up his small pot full of gold - and in return he will leave a large pot (a Halloween witch's cauldron) full of a reward. The reward will consist of shamrock shaped cookies, a pitcher of lemonade tinted green, festive cups and napkins, and a goodie bag for each child.
St.Paddy's day little man puppet
cut a large shamrock out -- have the dck paste it on a large art stick or popsicle stick and then add the arms accordian folded (with attached little shamrocks for hands) and legs (again with little shamrocks for feet)
Shamrock cut outs
cookie cutters into paint and either paint a sweatshirt or on large pieces of paper.
Shamrock Puzzles
cut out a large shamrock and let the dck paste, paint crayon all over it. depending on the age the dck later cut it into several pieces and let them put the puzzle together!!
Ages: 2+
Shamrock hunting
Take children into back yard or a park and have them look for four leaf clover. We actually found one last year!!!--- This can be done inside as well by making construction paper clover and 1 four leaf shamrock and have the kids try and find it.
All ages
Leprechaun mischief
While the children are out playing or before they arrive make some silly changes in the room like putting things out of place, hiding things, leaving gold chocolate coins, etc. Leave green footprints Blame it on the leprechaun when they come in. Explain all about St. Patrick's day and leprechauns.
All ages
Coin hunting
Scatter gold chocolate coins in yard before children arrive and have fun searching for the "luck" left by the leprechauns.
Ages 2 1/2 +
Collage
Cut out a shamrock shape and have a box of green collage materials- yarn, fabric, ribbon, buttons, glitter. Add green coloring to glue and let them decorate.
Paper Plate Shamrocks
Materials:
3 paper plates,
Green Crayons,
Green Construction paper,
glue,
scissors ,
Instructions:
Color all three paper plates green. Cut a stem from green construction paper. Glue the three paper plates together and in a triangle type shape. Then glue the stem at the bottom.
Coffee Filter Shamrock
Materials:
coffee filter,
2 baby food jars,
water,
scissors,
blue and yellow food coloring,
q-tips ,
Instructions:
Cut Coffee filter in the shape of a shamrock. Put water in two baby food jars. Add yellow food color in one jar and blue in the other. Give the children qtips and let them mix the colors on the coffee filter. You end up with a very interesting green shamrock.
Shamrock Wands
From Craft's for St Patrick's Day
by Kathy Ross
Text © Kathy Ross, Art © Sharon Lane Holm
Used by permission of the Millbrook Press
Materials:
green construction paper,
scissors,
glue,
stapler,
gold glitter,
green straw,
thin ribbon in both green and gold ,
Instructions:
1. Cut three heart shapes from the green paper. Glue the tips of the three shapes together to form a shamrock.
2. Staple the center of the shamrock to the end of the straw to make a handle
3. Decorate the shamrock with gold glitter
4. Cut three or more 3 foot ribbons. Hold the ribbons together and staple them to the back of the shamrock at the center so that the ends hang down from the shamrock wand.
5 Cut several tiny shamrocks and staple them along the ribbons.
Maybe your magic wand will help you catch a leprechaun!!
Shamrock People
Materials:
construction paper,
scissors ,
Instructions:
Cut large shamrock shape our of green paper. Fold white paper accordian style for arms and legs. Cut small shamrocks for hands and feet. Glue at ends of accordian arms and legs. Decorate large shamrock as a face. Very Cute!
Give each child his or her own paper with shamrock (or any seasonal pattern) traced on it to fill the page. Put glue inside pattern and let children spread it out with their fingers. Wipe off children's hands with a wet wipe. Have green tissue paper cut into small squares (1" X 1" is a good size) and placed in a bowl or dish. Let the children crumple up the tissue and place the squares inside the pattern. After the glue has dried, the pattern can be cut out, and hung on the walls or from the ceiling for wonderful seasonal (and free!) decorations. (Hint: It creates a neat effect if two or more shades of tissue paper are used and overlaped.)
Connect the dots:
Ahead of time prepare the papers with 5-10 shamrock stickers all scattered on the paper.
On St. Patricks Day or the week of give each child a paper with the shamrocks. Each child needs to connect the shamrocks by drawing lines to connect each one. You can place them in a certain shape, or just random around the page.
Get some yellow construction paper and cut out shapes in blue tissue paper and gluing
them on so they make....Green!
Mix blue and yellow food color in water to show the children how green is made.
*1 medium ziplock bag,
Shaving cream (white),
Food coloring ,
Squirt white shaving cream inside the ziplock bag, add a few drops of food coloring,
and close the bag, making sure that all the air is out. This gives your child the opportunity
to explore mixing colors (blue and yellow makes green, etc.) -- and there's no mess to clean
up afterwards! Or clip a corner & finger paint with it
Run off a cute frog black line on bright yellow construction paper, then have the kids put dots
on the frog with "blue" bingo markers. It is magic to them to see the dots turn out "green" on the frog!
They then cut the frogs out and put them in their color booklets they are making on the GREEN page.
"Oscar the Grouch"--using 35 mm film canisters, have the children cut a little square of newspaper
(approx. 3X3") put a drop of glue in the bottom of the canister and then put the newspaper in so
some sticks out of the top; glue one green pompom on the newspaper, and glue two tiny squiggle
eyes on the pompom (they will need help with the eyes.) it looks just like Oscar the Grouch in his
garbage can. You can get all the film canisters that you need for free at a film/camera store
FOOD:
Leprechaun lime finger Jell-O:
Add 4 cups boiling water to 4 envelopes unflavored gelatin and 3 packages lime Jell-O.
Pour into 13x9 pan and chill to set. Cut into squares.
Have a silly green lunch:
Kiwi Fruit
Lettuce/Salad
Split Pea soup
Green colored milk
Saltine crackers "painted with food coloring in green"
It looks gross, but the kids love it. bake buns that have been dyed green green egg salad for the inside.
green Kool-aide. cucumbers, celery, pickles, etc. The kids really enjoy the all green meal.
mashed potatoes, celery, pickles scrambeled eggs,crackers, green milk
Need a turtle puppet quick? Paint a paper plate to resemble a turtle's top shell and paint another plate for the bottom shell. ( I have used both the dinner plate size and the sandwich plate size.) Staple or glue green construction paper legs on either the top or bottom plate. Sandwich a green sock between the painted paper plates so that the toe sticks out for the head and the top of the sock sticks out the back for the tail. Staple the two plates together on both sides, add eyes, slip your hand into the sock and wah-lah...a turtle hand puppet to use with storytime. Warning...all the children want to make their own!
