Shamrocks
Stamping !
What is more Irish than potatoes and appropriate for those under 21 ? Nothing ! This is a perfect St.Patrick’s activity for young toddlers and those just starting out with art. I am using a stamp pad because we already painted a bunch this week but paint will work well too, just spread it thin on a plate . After this simple project my son begged for “gooey goop” so he added his own final step onto the easy peasy shamrock !
- Gather your materials. You will need a few new potatoes they fit perfectly in your child’s hand! Paper, a marker, scissors and a stamp pad.
- Draw a shamrock on the paper with the marker.
- Cut the potatoes in half, this can also be a fun way to learn about ovals, the cut potatoes make perfect little ovals!
- Start stamping !
- My son got very into it- and was slamming the potato into the paper, with the stamp pad this is okay but with paint this would result in a major mess.
- Cut out when dry.
- If you want you can grab whatever you have to embellish it, my son asked specifically for the glitter, so I wasn’t about to say no.
- This is the upgraded one after my son added his personal touch of green and gold “gooey goop” ( glitter glue).
Book!
“Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato” by Tomie DePaola is not my favorite book. I am sorta torn on how I feel about it, I liked the signature de Poala illustrations were but the story itself which is an old folktale just wasn’t really one I was eager to read my son. It’s about Jamie who is lazy, and he makes his wife do everything and only when she is hurt and in bed does he go off to get something done. Then when he meets a leprechaun he doesn’t get the pot of gold instead he gets a potato… It just fell flat for me. The author has many books I love and maybe my expectations were too high but this one was just so so.
Shamrock Garland
How could I let a holiday go by without a garland? I love decorating with garlands .What makes this one so fun is that it’s made with coffee filters. The surface absorbs the paint well and when it’s dry it really looks like a leaf. Add a little glitter and you have a perfect and inexpensive St.Patrick’s Day decoration.
- Gather your materials. You will need multiple coffee filters,some yellow and blue paint, a paintbrush, some gold glitter, sharp scissors, and some green ribbon .
- Start by cutting your coffee filters into shamrocks. With really little toddlers I would draw a shamrock and let them paint it then cut out, painting on the small shamrocks is a challenge , they have to be careful and for a young toddler it would prove to be really frustrating which isn’t what we want.
- Mix your green paint. When activities are shorter like this one I like to have my son mix the paint, he loves it too!
- Paint your shamrocks
- Let dry
- Add the gold glitter and let dry.
- Poke 2 small holes in each shamrock, I alternated between the top and the stem.
- Thread the ribbon through
- Hang up and enjoy!
Book !
`S is for Shamrock : An Ireland Alphabet” by Eve Bunting is a book full of possibilities. The text is long, but you can easily shorten it for young children to only be each alphabetical item such as L for leprechaun , V for vikings and Z for zed . Older children will enjoy the detailed information on each page and even the youngest babies will love the illustrations.
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