'Irish' These 6 Projects Help ShamROCK Your St. Patty's Day
Okay... so you've served up bowls of Lucky Charms and dyed your pancakes and waffles bright green. But what's next? Try out these easy projects to help brighten St. Patrick's Day with your wee lassies and laddies!
1.) Catch the Rainbow - 90 Second Project
Snag the following items from your kitchen to leave leaping leprechauns stopped in their tracks:
Skittles (or M&Ms work too)
Plate
Water
Arrange the bite-sized candy around the bottom edge of the plate a circle. Once your sweets are in place in your desired pattern, pour water into the center of the plate just enough to get each piece of candy slightly wet at its base, but not too much to make them float away. Then WATCH!!! The colors will magically flow and fill the plate before your very eyes.
Once the colors have all made their way to the center of the plate, talk with your little ones about the color wheel and allow them to shake the plate to mix the colors and/or use tooth picks to stir and mix the colors together.
2. Rainbow Shamrock Name Mobiles
In a house of twin 3-year-olds, the alphabet is all the rage these days. Any time we have the opportunity to spell out names, we do! For this creation I turned to my trusty Cricut to cut out shapes and letters; however, it is an excellent idea to opt for your little ones to cut out a cloud shape and enough 4-leaf clovers for each letter in each child's name. Then go ahead and write one letter on each shamrock. (Since they are mobiles, we were sure to have the same letter on the front and back of each clover in case it flipped sides when hanging in the air.)
3. Mason Jar Rainbow Power
When I was little, I recall the "yellow and blue make green" Ziploc bag commercial first sparked my interest to combine primary colors to make another one. It was my first real prompt to examine the color wheel. In this spirit, to brighten the mood in our house, we broke out the following to complete this easy peasy project:
Red, Yellow, and Blue Food Dye
Paper Towels
Water
6 Mason Jars (the same size)
Begin by filling up 3 of the jars with water 3/4 of the way. Designate one color dye for each of the water-filled jars.
Place your jars in a circle and leave one empty jar to separate each of the primary colored water.
Next use your paper towels! Roll up 6 paper towels. Insert one end into the dyed water and the other end into the empty jar next to it. Go around the entire circle with this process.
Then wait a few hours and see what happens! The colors from each side should flow into the empty jars making new colors for a full rainbow effect.
My wee three thoroughly loved the process and made up their own little ditty to sing around the house about their color combination results! We'd love to see how yours turns out too - so feel free to share your pics.
4. Marshmallow Fruit Loop Rainbows
For quick fun that helps fine tune motor skills, I gathered up the following:
* Fruit Loops
* Large Marshmallows
* Pipe Cleaners
Insert the end of the pipe cleaner into a marshmallow and let your kids go to town pulling each Fruit Loop onto their pipe cleaner! If they love patterns or are learning sequences, this is a great way to talk about "what goes next?"
Often my biggest challenge with this creation is keeping my supplies from being gobbled up!
When the end of the pipe cleaner is successfully filled with Fruit Loops, insert the end into another marshmallow for a rainbow to be fully revealed and admired.
While you have these supplies handy, feel free to also make Fruit Loop bracelets or necklaces using your pipe cleaners. They prove to be the perfect accessory to snack on throughout St. Patrick's Day!
5. Lil Leprechaun Hat
Delve into your garden supplies and find enough clay pots for each child. (In this project we found 3 mini 3" clay pots as a set at the Dollar Tree.)
Next, green paint and brushes are required to color each pot. (Markers are also an alternative if you don't want to deal with paints.)
Let your pots dry completely before adding a scrap of black paper and gold or yellow square to create the final touches on your lil leprechaun hat!
6. Leprechaun Trap
While it is cautioned for leprechauns to not be harmed in the creation of a trap, you are encouraged to look at your collection of Amazon cardboard boxes and gift wrap with creativity. Use what you have around your home to find enticing golden and green goodies. Remember to let your little ones contribute ideas about how paper straws and fishing wire may serve as booby traps with golden chocolates dangling in tiny pots of candy coins. In short, think outside of the box about what you put into your box!
After you've set your "trap" overnight, come up with a clever way to show your kiddos when they wake up that you nearly caught your leprechaun, but not this time around! Use green footprints, a mini trail of Mike and Ike's, stash of chocolate coins, and/or a funny poem to have your little ones do a little jig of joy.
Ultimately, "Irish" you and your wee ones fun-filled family festivities while wearing too much green and hunting for 4-leaf clovers. And, as the saying goes, "as you slide down the bannister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way"! Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!