Hillary, a.k.a The Lesson Planning Mommy, is one of our fabulous Great Lakes Bay Moms Members. Hillary has a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education pre-school through third grade and a Master degree in Elementary Education grades K-8 with a reading endorsement K-12 grade. She loves creating meaningful, mind provoking activities and lessons for kids.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Green, green, and MORE green! Celebrate this week with lots of fun St. Patrick’s Day activities for you and your kiddos. Don’t forget to check out the kiddos calendar for more great St. Patrick’s Day activities and events! HERE!
What We’re Reading:
 “The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day” |
 “Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day Ever!” |
Songs:
“Five Green Shamrocks”
5 little shamrocks growing outside my door,
(child’s name) picked one, and then there were 4.
4 little shamrocks, green as green could
be, (child’s name) picked one, and then there were 3.
3 little shamrocks, sitting by my shoe,
(child’s name) picked one, and then there were 2.
2 little shamrocks, enjoying the sun,
(child’s name) picked one and that left 1.
1 little shamrock for Saint Patrick’s Day fun,
(child’s name) picked it, and that left none.
(Author unknown)
“Leprechaun Song”
(Tune: I’m a Little Teapot) I’m a little leprechaunquick as can be.
I hid my gold
under a tree.
If you see a rainbow
you may find
where I left
my gold behind!
(Author unknown)
Activities:
Goin’ on a Leprechaun Hunt
I love doing this activity with my lil’ wee one. It’s especially fun to do after reading a St. Patrick’s Day themed book. This activity is not only fun for the kiddies though, but it also helps build their fine motor skills!
What You Need:
- Peanut container
- Construction paper
- Crayons or markers
- Tape
- Scissors
- Plastic gold coins
Directions:
- Wash out a peanut container extremely well
- Cut a piece of construction paper to fit around the outside of the container
- Instruct your wee lil’ one decorate the construction paper
- Tape the construction paper on the outside of the container
- Cut a slit in the lid with scissors, making sure that the slit is large enough for the gold coins to fit through
- Hide the Leprechauns treasure throughout your house and send your little one on a treasure hunt!
Shaving Cream St. Patrick’s Day Art!
Children love the “magic” of combining colors to make a new color. Here’s an activity that will give your kiddo hands-on practice with this concept. Let your child mash, squish, and mix his way to an understanding of color with some shaving cream and food coloring. This art and science activity will show your child how primary colors combine to make secondary colors. Challenge your little one to make a shamrocks, rainbows, leprechauns and pots of gold!
What You Need:
- Smock or apron
- White aerosol shaving cream
- Food coloring
- Three zippered sandwich bags (more for extra discovery and exploring!)
- White paper
- Cotton swabs or small paintbrushes
Directions:
1. Learning can be messy, so make sure to put your smocks on first! Now put a plum-sized dollop of shaving cream into each of the three zippered sandwich bags.
2. In one bag, carefully squeeze 3 drops of red and 3 drops of blue food coloring onto the shaving cream. In another bag, squeeze 3 drops of blue and 3 drops of yellow food coloring. In a third bag, squeeze 3 drops of red and 3 drops of yellow food coloring. Zip each bag closed.
3. Ask your child to observe what happens when he kneads the shaving cream in each bag. How does the shaving cream change? What happens to the food coloring? What colors did red/blue, blue/yellow, and red/yellow turn into?
4. If you want to extend the experiment, you can ask your child to predict what will happen when more or less drops of one of the primary colors are used. How can we make the colors deeper, less purplish, or more green? Will red and yellow always make orange? Will blue and red always make purple? Will blue and yellow always make green? Give him more shaving cream and zippered bags to find out.
5. When he’s mixed enough colors, have your child use the cotton swabs or small paintbrushes to paint a picture using the colors he has created. The finished product with its unique color and texture is great for framing!
Hand print Leprechaun
Cute, cute, cute leprechaun using your hands!
What you need:
- orange paint
- peach paint
- paint brush
- paper
- green and black craft foam
- scissors
- glue
- yellow button
- sharpie marker
Directions:
1. paint your child’s fingers (excluding the thumb) orange and paint their palm peach. Stamp on the paper. Paint just the top of their palm orange for some hair. Allow to dry.
2. cut a hat out of the green craft foam and a stripe for the hat out of the black foam.
3. have your kids glue the hat and stripe on their little leprechaun. Glue a yellow button on the hat.
4. using a sharpie draw on his adorable little face.
Hand print Shamrock
A quick, easy and adorable keep sake activity for you and your little one! Add the finished product to a 8 X 11 frame and you have a cute St. Patrick’s Day decoration!
What you need:/strong>
- green paint
- paper
- paint brush
- optional – glitter and glue
Directions:
1. paint your child’s palm green and have them stamp their hand, fingers pointing in and together, 4 times to resemble a shamrock.
2. paint on a green stem and allow to dry.
3. optionally, paint on some glue and sprinkle on some glitter for a really cool look.
Snack:
Lucky Charms® cereal with green milk
What is a better snack than Lucky Charms®, served with a glass of cold, green milk!?! When I handed my little guy a glass of green milk, he was convinced the Leprechaun had left it for him.
See more LESSON PLANNING MOMMY by clicking HERE!