Also see Leprechaun theme page!
Book List

Crafts for St. Patrick's Day - Kathy Ross

Create Your Own St. Patrick's Day Sticker Cards - Cathy Beylon

Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss

Green Grass and Milk - ALIKI
Little Bear Marches in the St. Patrick's Day Parade - Janice
Our St. Patrick's Day Book - Sandra Ziegler
Seeing is Believing - Elizabeth Shub
St. Patrick's Day - Dorothy Rhodes Freeman

St. Patrick's Day - Gail Gibbons

St. Patrick's Day Alphabet - Beverly Barras Vidrine

St. Patrick's Day in the Morning - Eve Bunting
Songs & Fingerplays

Five Green Shamrocks

Five green shamrocks growing outdoors
(Child's name) picked one, and that left four.
Four little shamrocks, green as they can be.
(Childs name) picked one and that left three.
Two little shamrocks nodding in the sun,
(Childs name) picked one, and that left one.
One little shamrock for St. Patrick's Day fun.
(Childs name) picked it, and that left none.

~Submitted by Jessica

I'm a Little Shamrock - sung to "I'm a Little Teapot"

I'm a little shamrock see my leaves
Count my three petals if you please.
If you give me water and lots of sun,
I'll bring you good luck and lots of fun!

~Submitted by Jessica

St. Patrick's Day

On St. Patrick's Day we see shamrocks.
(Hands over brow as if looking.)
Count the leaflets, one, two, three.
(Count on fingers.)
Like a hat with three feathers.
(Hold up three fingers over head.)
Like a coat with three buttons.
(Pretend to button three buttons.)
Like a stool with three legs.
(Rest three fingers on opposite palm.)
Like a hat rack with three pegs.
(Hold three hooked fingers in the air.)

~Submitted by Jessica

St. Patrick's Day Is Here - sung to "The Farmer In The Dell"

St. Patrick's Day is here,
St. Patrick's Day is here,
Let's give a clap and dance a jig,
St. Patrick's Day is here.

Do Your Ears Point Up? - sung to "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"

Do your ears point up,
Do you have a lot of luck?
For gold do you dig,
Can you do an Irish jig?
If the answer's "yes,"
Your a Leprechaun, I guess!
Do your ears point up?

~Submitted by Suzanne
Arts & Crafts

Leprechaun Ladders

Materials:
Straws
green construction paper
green yarn
hole punch

Cut white or clear plastic drinking straws into 1 ˝ -inch sections. Cut 4-inch shamrock shapes out of green construction paper and punch holes in the centers (make sure that the holes are smaller than the ends of the straw sections). Give each child six shamrock shapes, five straw sections, and a 14-inch length of green yarn with a straw section tied at one end and the other end taped to make a "needle." Then let the children string their shamrock shapes on their pieces of yarn with a straw section between each shamrock When they have finished, hang their leprechaun ladders" from the ceiling or in a window. Variation: Use as necklaces.

~Submitted by Jessica

Shamrock Puppy

Here's how you can make the cutest little green puppy!!! Cut a Shamrock out of Green construction paper. Turn it upside down so that the stem is upward. Glue googlie eyes onto the center or you can cut them out of construction paper too) Add a pom pom nose And a red construction paper tungue at the very bottom. Hanging down from the Shamrock.) Cut out a Bone out of white construction paper and glue it on the stem... Waa Laa You have a cute Green Puppy!

~Submitted by Jessica

Shake and Make Shamrocks

Need: 1 c. salt
green food coloring
zip lock bag
paper
empty shaker (salt and pepper shaker)
glue
scissors
paper

Place salt in the zip lock bag, add a few drops of food coloring and pass around for children to shake. cut large shamrock shapes out of the paper for each child. Have children spread glue on paper and then apply green salt. This great for younger children who shouldn't use glitter. write Green Magic For each child, place 1 TBLSP. instant pistachio pudding mix into a baby food jar. Add 2 TBLSP. cold milk and watch as the contents turn green. Put lids securely on the jars and have the children shake them for about 45 seconds. Then let the children eat their pudding snacks with small spoons. What makes the pudding turn green? Leprechaun magic, of course!

~Submitted by Jessica

Glitter Shamrocks

Using cookie cutters in the shape of shamrocks have the children dip the cutters into shallow pans of paint and press to paper. After they have desired amount of shamrocks, they may add glitter.

~Submitted by Jessica

Leprechaun Bowlers

This is too cute! Purchase enough sturdy (Chinet is one kind) paper bowls for each child to have in. Have the children paint the outside with bright green paint of the bowls. After the bowls dry, punch two holes to loop sewing elastic through to keep the bowls on their heads. Glued on a feather and an orange strip of felt or ribbon just below the lip of the bowl. The kids will LOVE them---use with an Irish music activity!

~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare

Blarney Stones

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a fun, easy, & inexpensive way. Have the kids gather smooth rocks from outside. Wash and dry the rocks, then use a paintbrush to cover rocks with white glue. Dip each of them in green or gold glitter and let dry. You now have Blarney Stones for good luck! The kids just love the sparkle---& the fact that they made them!

~Submittec by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare

Filter Paper Shamrocks

Precut shamrock shapes out of coffee filters. Mix water & yellow food coloring in a small container. Do the same for blue. Have the children use eyedroppers to drip colors on the filter shape. The colors will run together & make beautiful shamrocks!

~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare

Green Shaker Bottle

supplies you'll need:
water bottle (remove paper label)
green food coloring
St. Pats sparklies (I found shamrock shapes at Target)
strong clear tape

directions:
fill bottle with water
add food coloring to desired color
drop in sparklies
put lid on tight and tape shut with clear packing tape (this keeps the kids from opening the bottles)
SHAKE!!

My kids love making these.
~Submitted by Pam's Playground

Paper Plate Shamrocks

Materials:
3 paper plates
Green Crayons
Green Construction paper
glue
scissors

Instructions:
Color all three paper plates green. Cut a stem from green construction paper. Glue the three paper plates together and in a triangle type shape. Then glue the stem at the bottom.

From Childfun

Cut a green pepper crosswise and make pepper prints, look like shamrocks.

~Submitted by Nancy in IL

We made shamrocks out of bell peppers today. Slice your bell pepper, dip in green paint, make the prints, add a little green stem with marker. They turned out cute. Have fun:)

~Submitted by Laurie ~ Kids First

We also made this week a Pot Of Gold: Paint a little clay pot black, tie a green ribbon around it then fill with chocolate gold coins. I got the clay pots at Walmart for . 5 each. They make a cute gift.

~Submitted by Laurie ~ Kids First

Cut three hearts and a stem from paper. Glue them in the shape of a shamrock. Then trace it onto green paper. You will have a perfect shamrock every time.

~Submitted by Laurie ~ Kids First

Texture Shamrocks

Have the children use green fingerpaint that has been mixed with grits (to give it a texture) to cover a shamrock shape. (Or any other St. Patty's Day shape you might like to use---or have a variety for the children to choose from) This gives these are very different feel.

~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare

Growing Shamrock

Cut a shamrock from terry cloth for each child. Moisten shamrock. Sprinkle with alfalfa seed. Keep moist. Set in dark place. Allow several days for shamrock to grow. Set in sunlight for shamrock to turn green. This works great with a sponge & grass seed also. (It's best to start this activity early in the month so it's growing for St. Patty's Day. I usually make a couple extra in case some don't grow well.) The kids love to watch them grow & change!

~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Theme Ideas

St. Patty's Day

With a hole punch in the shape of a foot, punch out about 200 and place them all over the day care room. Make Leprechaun binoculars out of 2 tp rolls stapled together and paint green. For breakfast have green eggs and ham, for snack "Lucky Charms" and Green Milk. Hunt for Gold Coins (use the Chocolate gold coins) They love finding all those little green feet too. Draw a shamrock on their faces too with a washable marker (baby wipes take the marker off easily)

~Submitted by Jessica

Potato Hop

Cut out 10 potatoe shapes out of brown paper bags (laminate if you wish to save from year to year) and number them 1-10. Place them on the floor in a row. Encourage the kids jump from one to ten signing "one potato, two potato, three potato, four...etc. Fun!

~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare

Mischievous Leprechaun

On St. Patrick's day the leprechaun is very mischievous. He upsets chairs while children are outside playing, walks through the jello, and dyes the mashed potatoes light green. To help him keep out of mischief we make leprechaun ladders for him to play on. Stringing shamrocks alternately with snips of straws. Hang from ceiling or windows.

~Submitted by Jessica

Bulletin Board Idea

I purchased some of the wider width adding machine paper on the roll and cut a green bell pepper in half took out the seeds. I put some green paint on a styrofoam tray and had the kids create a boarder for my bulletin board by stamping all around the paper strip--it would also look cute around the window or such. I will probably do this again this year--I will have enough adding machine paper to last me for years. Was really cheap and easy and the kids had a blast!

~Submitted by Erin

Lucky Charm Math

Sort children into groups, pour a bowl of Lucky Charms for each group. Call out a marshmallow shape (red balloons, green clovers, shooting stars, etc.) one at a time and have groups sort through their bowls to find the shape called. Each table announces how many of the shape they have (as each shape is called). Discuss which table has more, less, the same, and the most. Place a box of Lucky Charms in the writing center so that children can make pictures incorporating the marshmallow shapes into them.

~Submitted by Leigh

Pass the Gold Coin

All the kids sit in a circle. I will play some irish music and the children will pass around a Gold Chocolate Coin. When the music stops, the child holding the coin gets to keep it until they go home. Mind you I have to really monitor that the gold coin is being passed and we will keep it up until everyone gets one to take home. The kids usually love this because they get to take the chocolate treat home.

~Submitted by Linda in MD
Science

 Magic Green Flowers

Skills: Descriptions, Hypothesizing
Activity: Purchase or gather one yellow flower and blue food coloring, Show the children the flower. Have them descibe it. Place the flower in a clear glass along with a small amount of water and enough food coloring to turn the water dark blue. Have the kids describe what they see and tell you what they think will happen to the flower. Allow the kids to check the flower several times each day until the yellow flower has turned green. Ask the kids why blue food coloring turned the yellow flower green.

~Submitted by Konnie, Daydreams Daycare
In the Kitchen

Shamrock Shake (similar to Mc Donalds)

Into blender put:
green food coloring
2 cups softened vanilla ice cream
1 tbsp peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups milk

Blend until smooth. Makes 1 drink

~Submitted by Ginger, Apronstrings Childcare
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