St. Patricks Day with kids!

St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday that can be celebrated by everyone; they say “Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s day!”  The holidays we celebrate with the kids are infused with crafts, foods and many decorations so they can feel the culture behind the holiday as well as having fun!

The kids love to celebrate St. Patty’s Day. This year we had a great time during our craft day.  We threw Corned Beef with potatoes and carrots in the crock pot and served with Shamrock Shaped Crescent Rolls.  Back by popular demand, we made the Green Punch we made last year.  For dessert last year we made rainbow cupcakes that turned out to be a hit!  This year we attempted to make chocolate cupcakes with a rainbow made from Twislers but we didn’t have much luck getting the rainbows to stand up straight.  Of  course St. Patty's wouldn't be complete with out our Irish Potato Candy tradition!  These super sweet candies are so easy to make and Lauren loves to roll them in her hands.

Irish Potato Candy

Lauren's Salt Dough Shamrocks

Corned Beef with Shamrock Rolls

Green Punch

The table setting was created using a gold table cloth, bright green charges, and lime green plates with black dessert plates.  For the napkins we used green ribbon and gold scrapbooking paper to create a faux gold belt – these were too cute and so simple to make!!!

Lauren created shamrocks on sticks using Salt Dough.  She loves this craft.  She rolled out the dough and used a Shamrock shape cookie cutter to cut out the shamrocks.  She then skewered each one onto a wooden skewer.  After baking them she then painted them sparkling green paint.  Lauren then went around and placed them in a few of our house plants.  She had a great time making these and it was a fun project that she is proud of.  

We also had several funny hats and other props that the kids had fun wearing and having their pictures taken.  

Watch this 3 minute video we found on the History Channel that explains the history of St. Patrick's Day:

 

 Happy 
St. Patrick's Day!

March is here!

The month of March is National Nutrition Month and Women's History Month among other things. March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday and also Read Across America day. Alexander Graham Bell has a birthday on March 3, Johann Sebastian Bach has a birthday on March 21st, and Robert Frost has a birthday on March 26th.  St. Patrick's Day is March 17th and the first day of spring is March 20th.  

March is also National CRAFT Month!  Follow along with us this month for crafts related to the upcoming holidays!

Check out our Story Book Hour picks for March:

National Nutrition Month / Cooking Healthy for Kids 

 

 

Women’s History Month:

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/whm/0,8805,101044,00.html

http://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/weblog/2010/03/womens-history-month-5-kids-books-that-celebrate-women-empower-girls.html

 

Dr. Seuss’s Birthday:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss

 

Alexander Graham Bell:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192

Johann Sebastrian Bach:
http://www.jsbach.org/

 

 

 

 

Robert Frost:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192

 

 

 

St. Patricks Day:
http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

      

First Day of Spring:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/riteofspring1.html

The St. Patty's Party

What a phenomenal day. Woke up to a beautiful day and we started a good stout Irish Stew in the crock pot to cook all day and made a nice traditional Irish Soda Bread. This was awesome, the kids loved that it was cooking all day. The house smelled fabulous.

We played some traditional Irish/Celtic music all day to create a beautiful atmosphere in the house. All of us wore crazy Irish motif hats. This was fun just in the novelty of wearing these big fun hats. The kids really liked their hats.

And Let the Games Begin…..

The kids were asked to create their own Leprechaun Traps using every day household items. They came up with some really cute ideas and we displayed them under a real life size leprechaun we hung on the wall.

We created a really fantastic scavenger hunt for the kids. We used a lot of facts about Irish Folklore in the rhymes of every clue. The clues were rolled up and tied with a green ribbon and hidden all over the yard. They started this off by reading their first clue that we gave to them and then the race was on. They found each clue that lead to the next clue in the hunt until finally the hunt culminated in the kids finding pots of gold. This was so fun and was fabulous to watch the kids finding each clue and figuring out where to find their next clue. What a great use of decoding skills for the kids as well as learning some fun facts about Irish culture and folklore. This was truly fun and enjoyable for everyone. We all had a great time.

Tablescape

This was truly our most beautiful tablescape yet. The table was set with a clover tablecloth. A runner of moss ran down the middle with three pots of glittering clovers evenly placed along the runner. We then placed moss covered rocks on the runner and strategically placed loose clovers. The place settings included individual bowls in the shape of clovers for the stew. We used a see through green plastic cup to hold homemade green mint milk shakes, topped with clover shaped straw. At the one end of the table we placed a four tier plate holder which held the Irish soda bread, rainbow cupcakes with clover cookies, a black cauldron with the Stout Irish Stew in it and a punch bowl to hold the moss green punch. This meal was so yummy and great to sit down to after the scavenger hunt.

Decorations

Other then the tablescape we had clovers hanging from the windows, green beads hanging on our chandelier, a huge homemade rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it. The Rainbow was made out of lots and lots of colored tissue paper and cardboard.  We had life size leprechauns on the walls and displayed the leprechaun traps that the kids made under one of them.

This was a truly fun, enjoyable, educational and active day for all of us.

As for the kids, they used decoding and strategy skills during the scavenger hunt as well as reading and learning many many facts from Irish folklore. They listened to music that is culturally considered Irish in nature. They heard the variety of instruments used in such music such as the fiddles, harps and dulcimers. They had traditional Irish food that is indigenous to Ireland. Like all of our craft days to celebrate holidays this one was filled with ambiance, food, facts and just plain fun.

The Leprachaun Traps the kids made:

Moss Rocks:

The Irish Stew with Soda Bread:

The making of the rainbow cupcakes:

The Moss Green Punch: