There are many ways to decorate a shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day. Utilize any extra craft materials such as buttons, material, yarn, stickers etc. and let the children have fun creating their own design. Here are a few other ideas for your wee ones!

Finger Paint Shamrock
Cut a shamrock shape out of white finger-paint paper. Put a dab of yellow and blue paint on the paper, let children finger-paint when done sprinkle on some green glitter they turn out very pretty.
Sweet Shamrock
Cut out shamrock shapes from green paper. Have the children put glue around the edge of the shamrock. Sprinkle salt or sugar on the glue.

Spotted Shamrock
Cut out smaller sized shamrocks from 81/2×11 paper. Have paint in bowls and Q-tips available in each color. Demonstrate how to make dots by “stamping” the paper, this looks great when they finish. The smaller size is because it takes a while to do this, for the impatient children you may need to help or they may try to paint with the Q-tip to complete faster. To extend this activity and teach about pointalism there are a few sites but here is one with a neat activity and sample pictures: http://yennadon.sd42.ca/online/artforweb/pointalism.html.

What You Will Need:

Construction Paper, any size, we like the large 18″

Paint

Spring themed sponge (optional)

Staples, tape and hole punch

String

Streamers or crepe paper

Using a large piece of white construction paper, have the child paint or sponge paper. Print one side of the paper, let dry. Fold the paper into “tube” shape, with the prints on the outside. Staple ends together and tape middle. Staple three strands of  crepe paper at the bottom.  Put two hole punches at the top and have the child string through. Beautiful Spring Windsocks!

This can be used for any spring activity or holiday.  For example, for St. Patrick’s day you can use green paint and a shamrock sponge and green streamers.

As you can see in the picture below it is a good idea to do outside if possible!

This non-toxic paint is easy to make and a fun way to be creative at home.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup corn starch
4 cups water, boiling
food coloring
Directions:
Dissolve the corn starch in a small amount of cold water in a saucepan. Gradually add the boiling water while stirring. Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture is clear. Add the coloring.

These cards are perfect for the little ones that are tactile and learn more from touch.

What you will need:

Index cards or card stock cut in squares, any size will do, mine are about 4×6

Marker

Glue

Anything you would like to add such as glitter or sand.

Write one letter on each card (this can be done for numerals and shapes as well.)

Follow the letter with generous amounts of glue, sprinkle on sand if desired.

Let it dry, takes a long time.  Then, have child feel the letters as you and your child practice identifying or making the sounds of the letter.  When child is ready have them close their eyes to guess which letter they are feeling.

So here is something you can do anywhere and it takes less than one minute.  This can be done here and there to practice the concept of before and after and to be familiar with the number line.  The practice of moving up and down the number line prepares children for subtraction and addition.  My five year old does this about once a day and sometimes I throw in the discussion of adding and taking away one number.

This can also be done with the alphabet.

This activity can be modified for pre-k but most appropriate for grades K-second. Children will identify letters, practice cutting and create words.

What you will need: old magazines, scissors, glue, construction paper, 26 bags marked with one pair of uppercase and lowercase alphabet letters, pencil or pen

Go on a letter hunt through the magazines and find letters and place them in bag marked with matching letter. Have child or children glue down individual letters to create words for younger ones and sentences for older ones. They may enjoy making messages to give to another child.

Tips:
-Use newspapers.
-This may be a bit much and long for one child, so instead of bags for each letter, just cut out the needed letters to make word or message.
-Lunch bags would be ideal for classroom but may want to use sandwich bags at home with sharpie marker to save space. Or have two-three letters in same bag to conserve space.
-Split this lesson into two days, letter hunt on the first day, messages on the second.

What you will need: salt, food coloring, water, paintbrush and paper.

Mix together salt, water and coloring to make your salt paint. Have child paint and leave the paper to dry. The water will dry and leave the salt behind. Ask your child, “What does the painting look like without the water?”

Afterwards, I thought it would be a great activity to do for a winter scene because it looks icy when it is dry.

Learning moment: Salt absorbs water, like in the ocean. The salt is attracted to water.