There is a wide variety of activities that kids can do on St. Patrick’s Day. While this holiday may seem like it is purely regional, kids from all areas enjoy the fun and excitement of St. Patrick’s Day. Best of all these activities are easy to do, cost little and don’t require any materials that are to hard to find. From games, activities, and even getting involved in St. Patrick’s Day cooking, there is something, for kids of all ages. If you are involved in helping a school class celebrate this holiday, or just want to have some “luck of the Irish” at home, here are some St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids-
Hunt for the pot of gold-Kids will love the idea that they are hunting for chocolate treasure! Best of all you will only need to have a pot filled with gold foil covered chocolate coins and some clever clues. Keep in mind that you will want to create clues that are appropriate to the age of the children hunting. Make sure that you adjust the level of difficulty to match the ages of the seekers. For some additional fun you can add a leprechaun thumbprint (use some green ink), to each of the clue cards. Make sure that there is plenty of chocolate treasure to be split up when the pot is finally found.
Over the Rainbow Cupcakes-Kids will love being able to make this St. Patrick’s Day treat. You will create layers of a rainbow, using a white cake mix. Start by making the cake batter using the directions on the package, (or if you are really ambitious, you can make a white cake batter from scratch). When the batter is prepared separate it equally into six bowls. To create each layer of the rainbow, you will add food coloring (the gel kind works best), to each bowl. Stir the food coloring in until you have a bowl of batter with each of the rainbow colors. Fill a cupcake pan with liners and begin layering in the batter. You will begin with the violet batter as the base. Smooth it down completely before adding the next color. Repeat this process for the blue, green, yellow, orange and red, making sure that you don’t mix the colors together. This will end up with a rainbow effect, with purple being at the bottom and red being on the top of the cupcake. The cupcakes can now be baked according to the directions on the package. After the cupcakes are cool, the kids can help ice them and enjoy!
St. Patrick’s Day Dress-up-You can encourage the kids to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by dressing all in green and then help them make hats to finish their outfits. Many St. Patrick’s Day celebrants decorate themselves with necklaces, scarves, buttons and even hats, all made out of green. For this fun and easy St. Patrick’s day hat you will need long strips of green construction paper. Fit each strip around the head of the child and cut to fit. Have the child cut out several heart shaped shamrocks and glue them onto the strip of paper. You can also have other materials that are green for them to add to their hats. You might want to have out beads, feathers, stickers, or other craft material. They can also use watercolor paints, markers or crayons, to decorate their hats as well. When they are completely done (make sure the hats are dry), you will just fasten the ends of the strip together using tape and they are all ready to celebrate!