Archive for the ‘St.Patrick's Day’ Category

Friendship is something that should be cherished and making something special for a friend is a great way to show friends how much they mean to you. Shrinky dinks can be found at any large craft store or here Shrinky Dinks Craft Kit. They are fast and fun to watch shrink , these can be made into zipper pulls, key chains or necklaces.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some shrinky dink paper, black and green colored pencils, a hole punch, a brown grocery bag ( or parchment paper), a cookie sheet , scissors and some ribbon or chain.
2. Start by drawing some shamrocks- I can’t hide the fact it took me a while to get it right .
3. Next color it green.
4. Cut out
5. Punch a hole in it.
6. Place it on the paper bag on the cookie sheet and place in the oven ( follow the instructions given for the temp).
7. Watch the WHOLE time. It only takes a minutes or two.
8. Let cool.
9. Thread the ribbon through and give someone you care about some luck of the Irish!

Hand print crafts are always fun to do and usually don’t get recycled even by me ( I rarely keep crafts).  For St.Patrick’s Day make this simple craft with all ages of kids, from toddlers who can just do the painting to school age kids who are perfectly able to do it with little to no help.  With little ones you will be doing a lot of cutting , it’s tricky to cut out hands even when you are full grown, but for something that doesn’t get recycled it’s well worth it.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some white paper,a sheet of orange construction paper, a marker, some green paint, a paint brush or roller, some gold glitter glue, scissors, and glue.
2. Start by tracing your child’s hands 4 times.
3. Time to paint!
4. Add some gold glitter glue and let dry.
5. Cut out, I also cut out a stem from the extra around the hand prints. One of our hands didn’t survive, so our planned 4 leaf clover turned into a shamrock.
6. Add glue to the orange paper.
7. Add the stem and hands.  Let dry.

Need more St.Patrick’s Day Activities ?

If you are preparing for St.Patrick’s Day or just urging spring and all the green that comes with it to hurry up and come this sensory tub activity is a must. So fun, so earthy and a huge huge mess. Seriously skip the mung beans, they roll when you sweep.  If you haven’t tried scooping activities with your child do, they love this and a little tub like this can lead to wonderful pretend play, basic understanding of measurement and is just plain fun!

1. Gather your materials. You will need some split peas, yellow lentils, mung beans ( if you dare… or have a drop cloth down), the green rice is called bamboo rice, some fun gold coins if you are doing a St.Patrick’s Day theme, and tools to scoop and pour.
2. Pour your lentils, peas and rice into your tub.
3. Add the gold coins and tools.
4. Invite your child to play.
5. Let them go. Find the gold, count them, hide them again, and just explore.
6. This spill was much much larger than I managed to capture on camera.  Accidents are forgiven but pouring on the floor is not . He gets one warning then the tub goes up until later in the day when we try again.  Still it’s well worth it and still fun a few hours later too!

Looking for more Sensory play ideas?

Ice Cube Painting
Oatmeal Digging
Backyard Car Wash