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: