We live in America. So like many people here, we are a little bit of everything. I have a tiny bit of Irish in my Ancestry, in addition to Polish, French, German, Slavic, English, Scottish… My family has been in this country for quite a long time, I could go on and on. However, you don’t need to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Of course there is a certain crowd that celebrates with lots of drunken antics. That’s fine for them, but we start the day with the “traditional” kid St. Patrick’s day breakfast, Lucky Charms and green milk!Jasper loves to paint! If you have read my previous project posts, you probably know this. While painting, one of his favorite things to do is pour the paint from one container to another. So technically Jasper likes to paint, but he loves to mix the paint even more!

St. Patrick’s Day Windsock

To prepare for St. Patrick’s Day this year, Jasper painted with “St. Patrick’s Day colors” (shades of green) and then we turned the painting into a windsock. Once the paper dried, I turned the paper in on itself and taped it into a tube. I taped some ribbon to create a loop on the top to hang the windsock from. Then we used ribbon and straightened Easter grass to hang from the bottom of the windsock. This is a super easy project. I helped Jasper with turning the paper into a windsock. However, older kids could easily do this themselves. I think windsocks are so fun and festive!

Tools:

• Paper
• Paint (shades of green)
• Tape
• Ribbon and other material

Rainbow Cloud Prints

When I was working at the daycare, this project was a big favorite with the kids and we always ran out of shaving cream before the kids wanted to stop! I had a similar situation with Jasper!

Tools:

• Cookie sheet
• Card stock
• Shaving cream
• Paint (colors of the rainbow)
• Stick
• Paper towels

To start the project you take your cookie sheet (or another container) and spray shaving cream all over the bottom of it. Then you add your paint. We made stripes with the paint the first time we did the project, globs the second, and the last time my husband just swirled the paint all about. After the shaving cream and the paint are added, the child uses the stick (we used a kabob stick) to swirl the colors together. Once the child has swirled the colors to their hearts desire, they press the card stock firmly down into the shaving cream. Then you remove the card stock from the shaving cream. Once removed, take a wad of paper towels, and wipe all the shaving cream off the paper in motions similar to wiping Windex off a window, and Ta-DA! You have a beautiful rainbow swirl on the paper!

Now this project did get a bit more messy with Jasper than it ever did at the daycare. One reason being, Jasper is two and the kids I had at the daycare were all School Age. The second being my husband “helped” with this project. That means, Jasper got over excited and the whole project ended with my husband taking a handful of the shaving cream and squishing it on top of Jasper’s head… Don’t get me wrong, Jasper loved it. However, it doesn’t have to get as messy as it did with Jasper.

Rainbow Sponge Painting

Last St. Patrick’s day we did some projects as well. Jasper did rainbow sponge panting last year. I put the colors of the rainbow on a dish sponge and he enjoyed moving the colors around on papers.

Tools:

• Dish Sponge
• Paint (colors of the rainbow)
• Paper

With very young children the projects don’t have to be big or special or even very exciting. Just getting to explore with the colors and sensations of the paint and having control over how the paint moves is enough for them. It may not seem like much to us, but for kids, that exploration is a learning experience in many ways. A year ago, Jasper would want to move the sponge around once or twice and then get a new paper. Now he wants to add so much paint to each paper that it sometimes get to be too much for the paper to hold, and it rips. It’s crazy how much they change in one year!

St. Patrick’s Day Window Clings

I think window clings are great! They are a cheap, easy project and Jasper loves them. They only have one downside. Once Jasper becomes bored with them, he tries to eat them… But hey you can get them for a dollar or two, if he rips them up or I have to fish them out of his mouth, I can just throw them away afterwards! And look at his silly face… and his chubby arm. Where did my baby go!

Leprechaun’s Cloud Coin Hunt

I love messy sensory play and this one is so easy! I just spaced out “gold” coins around the bottom of the tub. Then I sprayed shaving cream all over the tub! Jasper had a ton of fun searching through all of the shaving cream for the coins!

Tools:

• Sensory tub
• Shaving cream
• “Gold” coins

So, even if your not Irish, I hope you have fun this St. Patrick’s day!

To see more of our adventures visit us on Instagram!