Image by Ilham Nor from Pixabay

 

Creekside Kids’ founder and owner, Jennifer Barnes, has a wonderful ritual she carries out every year as a teacher at Mountain Song Community School. She welcomes the month of March with celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day, and allows the kids she teaches to share in the fun. Her rituals are a big hit every year, so we thought we’d share some of those same ideas, sized down for preschool kids!

St. Patrick’s Day is a fantastic holiday for children, filled with stories of leprechauns, rainbows, and pots of gold. At Creekside Kids, we endeavor to make every celebration meaningful and educational for our little ones. Read on for some easy St. Patrick’s Day-themed activities, crafts, and healthy treats you can enjoy with your preschooler at home. Although not everyone will value St. Patrick’s Day with the same reverence Jennifer does, for those that do, we offer these ideas for making this year’s St. Patrick’s Day a memorable event. 

Fun and Easy St. Patrick’s Day Activities and Crafts

Crafting a Leprechaun Trap

One of the most exciting St. Patrick’s Day projects is making a leprechaun trap. Jennifer does this every year in her classroom, and it’s a big hit with the kids. She has a small fairy treehouse decoration she’s built, and she adds elements to suggest a leprechaun has moved in and is asserting itself.

If you have the time, resources, and imagination, craft stores like Michaels can help you find small to tiny dollhouse elements to create a fairy home of your own. Tiny jewels, objects, and tools (including a chest for the leprechaun’s gold) are available. You can even create two-dimensional spaces off a wall that looks and feels like a leprechaun’s been living inside of it!

But to keep the effort simple, craft a leprechaun trap with your child out of simple construction materials… and then, watch their eyes light up as their leprechaun leaves behind some of the dollhouse items that they’ve never seen before! This activity sparks imagination and helps develop fine motor skills as your child cuts, glues, and assembles their trap. 

Materials Needed:

• A small box (like a shoe box)
• Green construction paper
• Glue and tape
• Markers or crayons
• Gold coins (plastic or chocolate)
• Shamrock stickers or cutouts

Steps:

Wrap the Box: Cover the box with green construction paper.

Decorate: Let your child decorate the box with shamrock stickers, drawings, or other St. Patrick’s Day-themed items.

Set the Trap: Place the gold coins inside the box to entice the leprechaun.

Prop it Up: Use a stick or small rod to prop up one side of the box.

For inspiration and more detailed guides, check out Little Bins for Little Hands, which offers a variety of creative ideas for leprechaun traps.

Healthy St. Patrick’s Day Treats

Healthy treats can be just as festive and fun as sugary ones. Here are a couple of easy and nutritious snack ideas that your preschooler will love:

Apple Slices with Lime Jello

Ingredients: Apples, Lime-flavored Jello powder

Instructions: Slice an apple into thin pieces. Lightly sprinkle the Jello powder over the apple slices. The dye in the Lime Jello will immediately begin to spread through the juices of the apple and turn the slices green! 

Serve immediately for a tangy, sweet treat! This healthy treat adds a burst of green color to your St. Patrick’s Day festivities. 

Rainbow Veggie Plate

Encourage healthy eating with a colorful and fun veggie plate.

Ingredients:

• Cherry tomatoes (red)
• Carrot sticks (orange)
• Yellow bell peppers (yellow)
• Cucumber slices (green)
• Blue corn chips (blue/purple)
• Ranch dip or hummus

Steps:

Arrange the vegetable in the shape of a rainbow on a large plate, ordered by color (tomatoes on top, then carrots, then peppers, then cucumbers, then blue corn chips). Place the ranch dip or hummus at the end to represent a pot of gold.

For more nutritious snack ideas, you might enjoy browsing Super Healthy Kids for recipes and tips.

Shamrock Stamping

You can create festive shamrock art with a simple and eco-friendly craft.

Materials:

• Green paint
• A bell pepper cut in half
• White paper

Steps:

Dip the cut side of the bell pepper into green paint. Stamp it onto the white paper to create shamrock shapes. Let your child decorate the shamrocks further with markers or stickers.

This activity promote creativity and improves fine motor skills.

Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

Sensory bins are great for tactile exploration and creativity. A rainbow bin is full of color and variation.

Materials:

• Uncooked rice
• Food coloring (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• Ziplock bags
• White vinegar
• A large tray or tub

Steps: Divide the rice into six Ziplock bags. Add a few drops of food coloring and a teaspoon of vinegar to each bag, and shake well until the color distributes evenly across the rice. Spread the rice on a foil tray to allow the dye to dry (this may take about an hour). Pour each rice color into the sensory bin to create a rainbow effect.

Your little one will have endless fun sorting, scooping, and playing with the colorful rice.

Paper Plate Leprechauns

This craft lets children explore their creativity while learning about Irish folklore.

Materials:

• Paper plates
• Orange construction paper
• Green paint and paper
• Googly eyes
• Glue
• Scissors

Steps:

Paint the paper plate green; this will be the leprechaun’s hat. Cut strips of orange construction paper for the beard and glue these around the bottom half of the plate. Add googly eyes and draw a smile. Cut a rectangle from green paper for the hat band and a black square for the buckle; glue these onto the hat.

Displaying these friendly leprechauns around your home will surely make everyone smile!

Healthy and Festive Treats

St. Patrick’s Day Books for Preschoolers

Reading together is a fantastic way to teach children about the significance of St. Patrick’s Day and to bond with your child in a way that they will revisit every year.

Here are some delightful book recommendations:

The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day by Natasha Wing and Amy Wummer: A fun and engaging story that captures the anticipation and excitement of the holiday.

Jack and the Leprechaun by Ivan Robertson and Katy Bratun: Follow Jack’s adventure as he tries to find a leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day.

Fiona’s Luck by Teresa Bateman and Kelly Murphy: A beautifully illustrated book that tells the story of a clever girl named Fiona and her encounter with the leprechauns.

How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton: this wonderful book suggests that, like the Elf on the Shelf, leprechauns are merry pranksters!

We hope these activities, crafts, and treats bring joy and cultural awareness to your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. At Creekside Kids, we treasure these moments of creativity, learning, and fun. Thank you for being a part of our wonderful community!

If you’d like to discuss a place at Creekside Kids for your kids, we invite you to click this embedded link to schedule an appointment. Let’s get to know each other! Like us on Facebook to follow our stories for news and updates. We’re located at 1201 W Cheyenne Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80906, and we can be reached at (719) 635-9111. Our new hours of operation are 6:45 a.m. until 5:45 p.m., Monday through Friday.