St.Patrick’s Day
These are simple learning games for kindergarten one focusing on breaking down syllables the other is math but they use the same materials from the dollar store. Learning After School at our house is all about doing quick and simple games that reinforce what my son is learning in Kindergarten. These lessons or games need to be fun, active and not too long. This isn’t homework ( he gets some very simple but useful homework) it’s in addition to it. What I love best about these activities is you really get to see how much your child has learned and while we play he will naturally open up and tall me about school.
- For both activities you will need a pen, some foam craft sticks ( wood would be fine too ) in rainbow of colors and green foam shamrocks.
- Start with the syllable break down by writing one, two and three syllable words on the craft sticks. You will want one word per rainbow color stick per shamrock. I had five one syllable, five two syllable and 5 three syllable words each. Our list was as follows 1: mop, mom, pan, run, son 2: color, garden, panda, super, open 3: umbrella, telephone, dinosaur, butterfly, elephant
- Write the numbers ( 1, 2, 3) on the different shamrocks.
- Play! Set out the words and shamrocks.
Ask your child to clap out or breakdown the words into syllables and place it on the shamrock with that number.
He was way faster at this than I could have imaged. Each shamrock has one craft stick in each color.
My son didn’t need the prompt but had I been doing this at his age I would have welcomed the hint that the colors give without having to ask for help. If your child is struggling you can say ” Does the number 3 shamrock have a red stick yet?” * Also there is no shame in googling ” 2 syllable words” or ” How to break a word into syllables” as a parent it’s probably been years since you have clapped out a word . 
- Adding in a little lesson about rainbow colors I had him place the words in proper rainbow order after he’d sorted them.
- This is when he said ” Ok now can we make it math?”
- So I flipped the sticks and wrote out simple equations. Again making sure to have one of each color matching the answer on the shamrocks.
- He loved this .
He decided he wanted to write the answer on each which slowed it down but I was so happy since writing is still not his favorite activity but is something he is doing in class right now. 
He didn’t finish all the equations. That’s OK! 15 equations is a huge amount in one go . This game can be played over and over again . 
My 6 year old was home from school this week and I tried to cram in as much fun as we could including a little early St.Patrick’s Day craft. Between a visit from the grandparents, watching The Princess Bride twice , 2 ferry rides and a trip to the aquarium we did a ton of activities. This was his favorite . Salad spinner art is a ton of fun and it’s not a bad work out either. You can find a cheap salad spinner like this one at Ikea for under $4!
- Gather your materials. You will need some paper plates or other sturdy paper , paint ( water it down just a little) and a salad spinner.
- Start by drawing your shamrock or rainbow on the plate. Draw them on both sides so you have a good guide for cutting later after it’s dry.
- Cut the extra off the plate . Fitting in cutting curves is something I am trying to do more for my son who is still working hard at that skill.
- Pour! We poured a little too much but if there is too much just scoop some off.
- Spin!
- Next up rainbow colors.
It gets a little messy but all fun things do !
- Next we thought we’d do some color mixing. So we got out our thinner Melissa & Doug Poster Paints and poured them in.
- Carefully watched as it spattered while it spun.
- It turned sorta grey so we added some other green paint and spun it again.
I love this picture because it shows out painting experiment which is what my son was calling it. I just liked seeing him so engaged even though he has done more than his fair share of art projects over the last 5 years. I am thankful he is still curious. 
- Let everything dry and cut out.
I am so excited about sharing on No Time For Flash Cards today. I have been following this blog for along time and love Allison’s ideas. My son (JDaniel) loves to cook and bake with me. With Saint Patrick’s Day drawing near I thought it would be fun to make Irish Soda Bread. Bread making has always been a challenge for me. The end products are usually too tough because I have over kneaded them. Bread that tastes like a rock or should I say Blarney Stone isn’t good at all.
While searching through recipes online, I found one for Irish Soda Bread that didn’t require any kneading at all just stirring called Amazingly Easy Irish Soda Bread on AllRecipes.com. My son loves to stir. This sounded like a great recipe for us.
It is super easy too. This one just required dumping in ingredients and stirring. We are both really good at that.
Here is the recipe:
Easy Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients:
3 cups of bleached flour ( I used unbleached.)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 egg
2 cups of buttermilk
¼ cup of melted butter
I added:
1 cup of raisins or a dried fruit your children like
Directions:
1. Grease the bottom of a loaf pan and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Dump in all the dry ingredients.
4. Add the egg and melt butter.
5. Stir until all the ingredients are moist.
6. Add raisins and stir just until they are blended into the mixture.
7. Pour into pan.
8. Bake for one hour.
9. Let it cool overnight.
10. Eat!
JDaniel4′s Mom spent twenty years teaching children as elementary school teacher in Virginia and South Carolina before becoming a mom. Now her four year old son JDaniel is teaching her to explore the world through his eyes. She hosts a weekly link up called Read.Explore.Learn. that encourages bloggers to share ways they are extending ideas they have read in books with their children through crafts, learning experiences, cooking and more.
Crafts for toddlers often has more than one goal. My main goal is special time together but often I have a secondary goal like fine motor development, learning colors, or sensory play. My daughter is 20 months old and I have no laundry list of things I want her to know at this age , my goal is to expose her to lots of fun activities and see what she takes a liking to. She loves water play so I thought she might like to try puffy paint again, I was right. This is a great activity for preschoolers too, don’t think simple crafts like this are only for toddlers.
- Gather your materials. You will need some plain old shaving cream, green paint ( darker the better), something to stir with , plain white glue, a marker , scissors and heavy paper.
- Start by drawing a shamrock on heavy paper don’t worry about it being even close to perfect you will be slopping and squishing puffy paint all over it!
- Time to mix. My son who was playing Lego in the playroom but didn’t want to make a craft did pop up to help mix. I do this so often I don’t measure anymore. I usually use about a cup of shaving cream to about 1/4 cup of glue. Then add the paint until it’s the color you want. Ours was greener than it looks but definitely a mint green.
- Start playing.
- She wasn’t sure at first.
- But soon both her hands were squishing, spreading and exploring.
- Yay fun !! We played and played.
- She was not happy when I told her it was time to wash hands.
- But washing the container in the sink was a great treat… for both of us.
- Let dry (at least 24 hours so the paint stays puffy even after you cut into it) and cut out.
I love rainbow crafts and with St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching they seem to be one of the more popular searches on my site right now. Even if you aren’t celebrating St.Patrick’s Day rainbows are great preschool crafts for kids. To make it easier for you I rounded them all up so you can find what you need easily when it’s time to add a little color to craft time .
Pom Pom Rainbow Wreath
Rainbow Gelatin Sensory Tub
Color Wheel Match
Scrap Paper Rainbow
Rainbow Color Match
Trash Rainbow Collage
Rainbow Discovery Bottle
Marshmallow Rainbow
Rainbow R Letter Craft
End Of The Rainbow – St. Patrick’s Day Treat Bags
