St. Patrick's Day Activities for Kids

Shamrock Potato Prints Printmaking Project

March 7, 2018 By Terri Thompson

St. Patrick’s Day is always the perfect excuse to learn more about Ireland. Certainly it’s fun any time of the year, but certainly St. Patrick’s Day always reminds me.

So, let’s go to Ireland, learn a little about Irish folklore, and create a fun shamrock potato prints printmaking project.

Use shamrock potato prints to decorate cards, paper, or notebooks with this fun printmaking project for St. Patrick's Day. It's a fun art project for all ages.

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When researching our Irish project, I found a wide selection of Irish folktales and soon settled on Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola. We love Tomie DePaola books and knew he would tell us a fun tale.

After enjoying the story of Jamie O’Rourke, the laziest man in all of Ireland, we decided not to be lazy and to start crafting. Since the book centered around a potato, we decided to try out potato stamping.

Supplies needed

Potato
Sharp knife (adult use only!)
Green paint
Paper
Paint brushes (foam brushes work best)

Create your potato stamp

The grown-up in charge will have to prep this project.

To make the potato stamps, cut a potato in half. I used a toothpick to “draw” my shamrocks before cutting. Then using the knife I cut around the shamrock to make my stamp.

We made two different styles of stamps. On one, I cut out the shamrock and on the other, I cut a thick outline of the shamrock.

Create with shamrock potato prints

We used the paintbrush to paint some green paint onto our stamp.

I used a couple of different shades of green since we were using shamrocks.

The girls painted and stamped and painted and stamped some more. We weren’t so worried about the end product. This project was all about the process.

The girls enjoyed stamping and seeing the texture from the potatoes.

After they covered their paper, they got creative. Soon our potatoes were completely painted green!

So much fun! You can keep these shamrock potato prints as a fun process art activity or you can use your potato stamp to decorate note cards, notebook covers, wrapping paper, or a fun wall hanging.

If you would like to try an Irish recipe to go along with your art project, check out this yummy Soda Bread Recipe from Glittering Muffins. You can download a printable passport page here and a placemat here to help you learn all about Ireland as part of the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog series.

Previously posts March 18, 2013. Updated and republished 2018.

If you enjoyed these shamrock potato prints, the above photo is perfect for sharing on Facebook or you can save the photo below on Pinterest.

St. Patrick’s Day Word Scramble Printable

March 1, 2018 By Terri Thompson

What do the words shamrock, green, and leprechaun have in common? (I know, I know, it’s not a hard question!)

I won’t leave you hanging.

They’re all words used around St. Patrick’s Day and they’re also all answers on this fun St. Patrick’s Day Word Scramble printable.

I just love a fun word scramble, don’t you? Keep reading to the bottom to get your own copy of this fun word puzzle.

St. Patrick’s Day Word Scramble

Word scramble puzzles are perfect for simple holiday fun. You can take them along to a restaurant to solve while you wait for food. Or, you can use them for a fun game during a St. Patrick’s Day party.

You can also print them for the classroom if you need a simple time-filler for students who finish their work early.

And, a word scramble always makes a good boredom buster any time!

I created this word scramble with ten fun words that describe St. Patrick’s Day. In addition to the words above, you’ll also find rainbow, gold, lucky, and four more words. Fun, right? How long do you think it will take to unscramble all the words?

If you’re ready to solve this puzzle, you can print out this St. Patrick’s Day word scramble at the link below. Feel free to print as many as you need for your family, friends, or classroom.

For your convenience, I’ve also included the word scramble answers in a separate document that you can download and print.

Download your free word scramble printable here.

Download the word scramble answers here.

Shamrock Rainbow Craft for Kids

February 23, 2018 By Terri Thompson

You know what always reminds me of St. Patrick’s Day?

Rainbows and shamrocks.

Also, leprechauns, the color green, and pinches. (But, I hate the pinching part of these holiday, so I try to forget about that part.)

Anyway, back to the rainbows and shamrocks.

We got out our craft supplies and decided to make a St. Patrick’s Day craft. We combined our favorite parts into this fun Shamrock Rainbow Craft.

St. Patrick's Day isn't just about the color green, it's all colors of the rainbow especially when you create this pretty Shamrock Rainbow Craft for Kids.

This fun St. Patrick’s Day craft is so easy to make and the results are very colorful.

So, let’s grab some simple craft supplies and we’ll have some fun getting creative.

Supplies Needed

White paper
Watercolors (we used these from Crayola)
Scissors
Green construction paper
Glue sticks

How to make your Shamrock Rainbow craft

For the first step, we painted rainbow stripes on our white paper.

My first grader painted hers in the correct color order, but my preschooler did hers in what ever way struck her fancy, including adding polka dots.

Have fun and get creative with this step.

I love the rainbow paper so much!

It would have been pretty to stop here, but we wanted to add more.

We took the green construction paper and cut it into quarters.

Then we folded the quarters in half and cut out hearts, three in total.

We also cut a stem from the extra paper.

After our watercolor paintings were dry, we glued our hearts down in the shape of a shamrock.

The process was truly simply, but the results were so pretty.

It makes me smile just to see them on our wall.

Get out your watercolors and paint a rainbow with this Shamrock Rainbow craft.

Shamrock Crafts for St. Patrick’s Day

February 28, 2017 By Terri Thompson

When I think about St. Patrick’s Day, the first thing I think about is the shamrock.

Sure, there are other symbols of the holiday, like leprechauns, gold coins, rainbows, and getting pinched, but the bright green shamrock is my favorite.

So, I went out and searched for some of the best shamrock crafts for kids. I found a treasure trove of great ideas. Check them out!

Get in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day by making one of these fun shamrock crafts for kids. They's all so much fun!

Pick out a few of these awesome crafts and grab the craft supplies so you can spend an afternoon crafting for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a great way to spend time with the kids and you’ll have some great shamrock decorations to display.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Pretty shamrock crafts for kids

Grab your rolling pin and transform it into an art tool with this fun Rolling Pin Shamrock Prints project from No Time for Flashcards.

Give your fine motor skills a workout with this Crepe Paper Shamrock craft from The Resourceful Mama.

These Beaded Shamrocks from Fun-A-Day are also a great fine motor craft.

Play with rhythm and add some paint to create these unique Shamrock cards for kids from Twitchetts.

Make painted Sham-Rocks with this fun nature craft from The Pinterested Parent.

Try a fun painting technique to make these Shamrock Smoosh Paintings.

Make a fun t-shirt to wear with this Polka Dot Shamrock T-Shirt tutorial from U-Create.

Use up your scrap paper to make these Mosaic Shamrocks from Happiness is Homemade.

Experiment with bleeding tissue paper to make these Bleeding Tissue Paper Shamrocks at The Pinterested Parent.

More awesome shamrock crafts

Grab a salad spinner to make these awesome Salad Spinner Shamrocks from About a Mom. (I found a cheap salad spinner at a thrift store to have on hand just for art projects. You don’t want to use the one in your kitchen!)

Decorate your windows with these Shamrock Sun Catchers from Pink Stripey Socks.

Turn a coffee filter in to a shamrock with this Coffee Filter Shamrock craft from Housing a Forest.

Watercolor and salt combine together to form these Rainbow Watercolor Raised Salt Painted Shamrocks from Rhythms of Play.

Add a rainbow to make these pretty Shamrock Rainbows.

Or you can turn your rainbows into these pretty Rainbow Three-Leaf Clovers from Crafty Morning.

Try a watercolor resist technique to make these beautiful Watercolor Positive and Negative Shamrocks at SparklingBuds.

Get out the glitter to make these pretty Glitter Shamrocks from Twitchetts.

Make an awesome banner to use year after year with this Shamrock Garland at Cutting Tiny Bites.

Create a fun snack and make these Shamrock Pretzel Pops from Mommy’s Bundle.

Which one of these shamrock crafts are you going to try first? I can’t decide. They’re all so awesome!

Shamrock Smoosh St. Patrick’s Day Craft

March 13, 2014 By Terri Thompson

Do you do a lot of St. Patrick’s Day activities?

We don’t do a lot., but we’ll dress in green, read some awesome books, and make a St. Patrick’s Day craft or two.

Earlier, I shared our pretty shamrock rainbows and today we’re going to be doing a bit of smoosh painting. (Yes, I made up that term! It’s a fun word for a fun process)

Try some fun smoosh painting to create this pretty St. Patrick's Day craft for kids. The process is fun and the results are pretty with this sensory painting idea.

Supplies Needed:

White paper
2 – 3 shades of green paint
Plastic wrap
Scissors
Glue
Thin cardboard (we used a cracker box)

How to make this fun St. Patrick’s Day craft

To begin, tear off a piece of plastic wrap for each child.

Next, squirt a little bit of each shade of green paint onto the plastic wrap. We were using three different paint colors, but any amount more than two will work.

Next – and this is the best part – turn the plastic wrap paint side down on your paper and start smooshing.

Smoosh all over.

Smoosh the colors together.

Then smoosh, smoosh, smoosh until most of your paper is covered.

This part of the process turned out to be a lot less messy than I anticipated.

To contain the mess, I had covered the table with an old sheet so the girls only ended up with a little bit of paint on their fingers.

The messiest part of the whole process was throwing away our paint-covered plastic wrap.

While waiting for the paint to dry, cut a shamrock from your cereal box.

Shamrocks are not as complicated to draw as you might think. Draw three hearts with their point meeting in the middle, add a stem, and you’re done.

If you’re still not confident in your drawing abilities, do a quick Google search for a shamrock to trace.

Cut out the shamrock and brush glue all over it. We used a watered down glue (one part glue to one part water) to easily get coverage over the entire shamrock.

Put your dried painting on top of the cardboard cutout, painted side facing out.

Then, press down until it’s stuck good.

We ended up putting ours under a heavy book for awhile to press it down and make sure our edges didn’t curl.

Once your glue is dry, use your cardboard as a guide to cut the paper.

And, you’re done!

I love how these turned out… and I really loved the smooshy process we went through to make these fun shamrocks.

Have fun decorating with this awesome St. Patrick’s Day craft!

St. Patrick's Day Activities for Kids