St. Patrick's Day Ideas

Fun art project time! We chose a less messy route, but if we had time would had liked to let my daughter, Riley do a finger paint rainbow then add our clover in, but it's up to you.

Doing it our way, all you need is: Scissors, Glue (stick), Green & White Papers of choice, Crayons, & Markers. OPTIONAL: You can skip the crayons & markers if you chose to paint your rainbow. In addition, you can also let your little one glue cotton balls at each end of the rainbow to make clouds.

First layer of crayon rainbow, clouds, sky, ground & dirt. 

I choose to make the leaves while Riley made her drawing. First I folded 1 sheet of green construction paper into quarters. Then cut along my folds. Each of the 4 little green sections I then folded in half again. 

Then cut like a rough over sized heart shape. You should end up with 4 hearts-leaves.

If your rainbow is all done, be it crayon or paint time to glue the leaves. Time to glue stick each leaf into place under the rainbow. It's fun for the kids kind of like a puzzle. Have all the points of the leaves touch, bottom of hearts. 

If you went the crayon route like us, you may want to then have the fun effect of markers on top of crayon. It just added a little more to it.

She decided this was gonna be for her Grammy & Nana, so we added a cute saying about Luck under the rainbow, then at base her name and date. All done.

So here's one key thing to remember while working on this with your little one. 3 leaves means shamrock. 4 leaves means 4 leaf clover. We made enough leaves that Riley could do either, and she choose the final result to be a "Lucky 4 leaf Clover."

*This is a Shamrock*

For the kid that is all about coloring I highly recommend printing out some of these Celtic Knot Patterns from Marcel's Kid Crafts, best part is they are free.

If you are looking for more books to help your child understand what or why here in the States we have Saint Patrick's Day Apples 4 the Teacher has a great list. I personally think Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs: The Story of the St. Patrick's Day Symbols by Edna Barth is a good one for school age children. 

Here's a few little counting rhymes/songs that we always loved: 

(If you feel extra crafty, time to make some puppets! Do your best at gluing leprechauns and shamrocks to popsicle/tongue depressor sticks.)

Five Green Shamrocks

One green shamrock, in the morning dew,

Another one sprouted,

and then there were two.

Two green shamrocks, growing beneath a tree;

Another one sprouted,

and then there were three.

Three green shamrocks, by the cottage door;

Another one sprouted,

and then there were four.

Four green shamrocks, near a beehive

Another one sprouted,

and then there were five.

Five little shamrocks, bright and emerald green,

Think of all the luck

these shamrocks will bring.

Five Little Leprechauns by Leanne Guenther (My personal favorite)

Five little leprechauns on St. Patrick’s Day

The first one said, “I’d like to play!”

The second one stood beside a rainbow.

The third one waved and said, “Hello!”

The fourth one said, “Good luck to the bold.”

The fifth one said, “Just don’t touch my gold!”

Plink, plink went the harp – they all danced around,

Then five leprechauns ran off with a bound.

*Tutu from: Tutus for Chichis*

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, Irish or not :)

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