Happy Saint. Patrick’s Day!

Each holiday brings the opportunity to participate in unique celebrations with your kids and Saint Patrick’s Day has no shortage of fun festivities. Whether you are lucky enough to be Irish or just love celebrating the holiday, try these fun and educational ideas to bring some luck to your home. 

Eat all things green! 

Celebrate the day by feasting on all things green. For breakfast, try some green eggs and ham while reading the Dr. Seuss book to your kids or dye your pancakes green just for fun. For lunch, try serving up a buffet of green foods - broccoli, celery, salad, guacamole, and grapes. Wash it all down with some green juice. Who knows? Maybe your child will try some new foods trying to get good luck on St. Patty’s Day.
Set up a leprechaun trap! 

Supplies

• Recycled cereal box
• Gold glitter
• Construction paper green red, blue, purple, yellow, orange, white
• Cotton balls
• 12- inch dowel or stick
• 36- inch piece of yarn or string
• White craft glue
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Tape

Instructions

1. Close the open end of the cereal box using tape. Cut the front (or back) of the cereal box off. Cover the box with green construction paper.
2. Using the piece of cardboard you just removed from the cereal box, cover a section with glue stick. Sprinkle the glue with glitter and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Tape the excess off onto a piece of paper and funnel the excess glitter back into the glitter container.
3. Cut the glittered cardboard into squares. Use scissors to round the corners of the squares to make gold coins. Set the coins aside.
4. Cut red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple construction paper into 2-inch wide strips. Begin with red, glue the orange strip on top of the red overlapping by 1-inch. Next add yellow, overlapping the orange by 1-inch. Continue this process with green, blue and purple. Trim 1-inch off the last (purple) strip so that all visible colors are 1-inch wide. This is your rainbow path.
5. Cover a piece of white construction paper with white craft glue. Add cotton balls to the craft glue to create the clouds.
6. To connect the rainbow path to the cloud, run a bit of glue stick along the underside edge of the path and stick it to the white paper, just under the cotton balls. Pile some of the gold coins onto the cloud, then create a “bread crumb” type trail of coins from the cloud down the rainbow path.
7. Get your kids to set up the trap by placing the clouds and path on the table or floor. Tie yarn around one end of the dowel. Prop the cereal box up with the dowel and hide! When the leprechaun follows the gold trail and ends up inside the box with the pile of gold, pull the yarn which will yank out the dowel and drop the box, trapping the leprechaun inside! Be sure to remind your kids that they are very, VERY fast. So fast, they may not even see him escape!

Make a Rainbow Cake!
Rainbows are a wonderful natural phenomenon that creates a sense of awe in young children. They're also a great symbol for St. Patrick's Day. Use this as an opportunity to explore the wonder of color. With spring approaching, try to look for moments where you can go for a walk or a drive after the rain to see a rainbow with your toddler. If that's not possible, use a prism to create a rainbow indoors on a wall or the floor. After that experience, you can make this rainbow cake to reinforce what you've discussed about rainbows and color. It can also be used to introduce new skills like measuring and stirring. The best part is that it's a rainbow you get to eat when you're finished. To create the cake, simply use your favorite cake recipe, in a round pan (rectangular works as well). Frost it in a simple white frosting, then decorate it with a candy that comes in a rainbow of colors. Skittles and M&M's are ideal choices. Depending on how advanced you want to make your cake, you can also use food coloring to make the actual cake a rainbow. Make each layer a different color and simply put frosting between each in order to have the stack stay together. 


Explore the Irish culture
Learn about the Irish culture by checking out books or movies about Ireland and the history of Saint Patrick’s Day from your local library. Have the kids watch a video of an Irish dance performance (YouTube is a great place to find one) and have the family try some of the dance moves themselves, consider adding a little Irish music to the day. Purchase a CD of Irish jigs or fire up your favorite music streaming surface and look for Irish-themed playlists. Simply playing Irish music is likely to get your toddler spinning, jumping, and dancing. The upbeat tempo just begs for it! You can even introduce the best part of the Irish jig by interlocking arms, then spin around in a circle. This activity will get the whole family moving and probably produce some giggles too. For the crafty, try painting or drawing an Irish flag or four leaf clover. If you are lucky enough to be Irish, make a family tree and discuss your heritage. For dinner try serving a traditional Irish meal like corn beef and cabbage. If this isn’t a family favorite, Reuben sandwiches may be a good alternative.
There are so many ways to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day that do not involve the stereotypical party we may first think of. Parents can get creative with crafts and activities that are family-friendly and sure to become a well loved tradition in years to come!