Top of the morning to you! We love holidays in this household and St. Patrick’s Day is one of our favorites. It’s playful, delicious and can be celebrated by all ages. As March 17th approaches, check out some of these St. Patrick’s Day ideas to add a little extra fun into your daily routines.
1 – Breakfast
Kick off the day with a festive place setting, pulling together all the green items you have on hand (paper plates, cups, napkins, flatware, decorations, etc.) and deck out the table for your family to find in the morning. You can create a trail of gold coins from their rooms to the table to show there is something exciting ahead. For the meal, try adding a few drops of green food coloring into pancake batter or even mixed into a bowl of yogurt. Since weekday mornings are always hectic, I make pancakes the night before to toss in the microwave when ready to serve. For something even more simple, add green sprinkles to the plate or on top of cereal.
2 – Crafts
Rainbow anything is great for this holiday. Here we used Q-tips taped to cardboard to make a “rainbow paint brush.” This keeps the colors spaced out. My kids did a traditional curve then mixed it up to make criss cross or dot pictures. Cotton ball clouds added to the ends of the rainbow add some texture. We shared these with Grandma. 🙂
3 – Books
Hit the local library for some titles about the holiday, leprechauns and rainbows. Or if you don’t have time, just collect any books you already have with green cover art and create a sea of green on the bookshelf.
4 – Leprechaun Traps
This one’s a favorite around here. The goal is to set out a trap the night before St. Patrick’s Day and try to catch those sneaky leprechauns. We use gold coins, Skittles and Lucky Charms as “bait” then create a homemade trap to try and capture one! You can collect sticks to make a ladder and cover household items such as tissue boxes, oatmeal tubes or Amazon boxes in construction paper. LEGOS, baskets, paper tubes and plastic containers are great supplies as well. We never seem to catch one, but those stinkers do leave behind a few silly things for the kids to find (flipped over chairs, shoes hiding in an odd place, toys moved around, etc.) and they always leave chocolate gold coins (can be found at a party store.)
5 – Education
Gold coins aren’t just for the little guy at the end of the rainbow. They also make great counting and sorting tools. The sky’s the limit in how to use these. We like to number mini pots and have our kids count out the correct number of coins. You could use them to practice stackings, “feed” them into a small box with a slit or hide them for a game.
6 – Fine Motor Skills
Lucky Charms are more than just a colorful snack. They also come in handy for color sorting games. You could do something as simple as plain cups labeled with each color or make a paper plate rainbow so your kiddo can line up the different colors. This activity is great year-round.
7 – Playdough Tray
Gather all the green, orange and white craft supplies you have lying around and put them into a tray with some dough then let the kids have at it. Pompoms, cookie cutters, pasta, beans, mini erasers (Target always has great holiday erasers), gold coins, marbles, pipe cleaners, etc. are perfect supplies to inspire creativity.
8 – Dinner
Pizza dough was meant for creativity! Try rolling out a premade ball of dough (you can find some in the Publix bakery) and shape it into a clover. The cheese can be colored by mixing in food dye and stirred up in a bowl. Consider swapping out red sauce for pesto to go totally green!
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