Green Lunch & St. Patrick’s Day Sneaky Service

I made green lunches for my kids today.

Green chocolate chip muffins, a GoGo SqueeZ Applesauce, green grapes and guacamole chips. I tinted their milk green and left a gold coin and a little green note that said, “I spy something green! Love, Mom”

Sneaky Service & Gold Coins

I love the tradition we have before St. Patrick’s Day. Last night, I left a cup of gold coins out with a note that said,

“It looks like a leprechaun was looking for some gold. Let’s see if we can fill up this whole jar for him and maybe he’ll come get it and leave us a special treat tomorrow! Every time you do a secret service for someone else, leave a piece of gold for them (from the cup on the fireplace). Then they can put their gold in the jar for him!”

I put the note out last night and actually forgot about it this morning. When I got up, I could hear my 4-year-old saying, “There’s a secret service!” I walked out and found a spotless living room with little gold coins scattered all over. They had cleaned up the whole room and left gold coins all around.

While I was making lunches, my boys had moved on to another room. I listened to them fold all of their sister’s clothes and put them back into her drawer (she had emptied it out looking for pants yesterday). Then my little 4-year-old ran by me with a dirty clothes basket, opened the washer, threw the clothes in and ran by again with the empty basket (I found a gold coin inside it later).

They had made my bed, put away my shoes and left a gold coin in their baby sister’s crib on top of her blanket they had picked up.

Amazing! And so much fun. I love it. Especially their little grins and excited smiles all day long. The jar is getting full. I made sure to do their dishes and make their beds and leave a coin. I’ve heard the leprechaun is planning to grab his gold and leave chocolate gold coins and rolos (gold wrappers) sometime tomorrow.

Have a fun St. Patrick’s Day with your kids!

Skittles Math Printables and other St. Patrick’s Day treats!

 

• Skittles Math … we do a version of this every year.
1. You’ll need a bag of Skittles and a Skittles Math graph.
• This was the version I made up last year (left). The kids sorted their Skittles into the circles, counted and recorded on the left, then filled in the flower centers with the matching color. (There are no blue Skittles in the regular pack, so that answer would be zero!)
• Another great printable from Erica Bohrer. Her graph looks a little more professional than mine and comes with a sorting mat and recording sheet. Click above to download for free! 

• Easy Gold Hunt … I love activities that are easy to put together last minute, but are fun for the kids. Love this idea from No Time For Flashcards.
  1. Gather several plastic gold coins … or use chocolate coins
  2. Trace around the coins on a piece of paper and number them!
  3. Hide the coins around the room.
  4. Let the kids find the coins and place them in the circles, counting as they go!
  5. Be prepared to play over and over and over again.

 

• Green Smoothie Popsicles … I made these the first time without letting the kids see what was going in the blender!
  1. In a blender, add strawberry yogurt, a scoop of orange juice concentrate, 1-2 handfuls of fresh spinach, 1 banana (I like to freeze banana chunks to throw into our smoothies), milk and ice.
  2. Blend.
  3. Pour into a popsicle mold and freeze for at least 3 hours.

     TIP: I pour the extra smoothie into these freezer cups. You can see them in our freezer above. Love them. We take them out and microwave for about 30 seconds and they’re perfect smoothie slushies!

     TIP: if you don’t have a popsicle mold on hand, we like to pour the mix into ice cube trays, cover with foil and poke toothpicks into each section! See the top shelf of the freezer above.

     • These monster molds are pretty cute. We run a little hot water before taking the mold off, works great! I love the little stand they come with. I’ve been looking at these other molds too.

• Irish Soda Bread … so I’ve never made Irish soda bread before and I’m wondering, is it still soda bread if I leave the raisins out?! I’m not a huge fan, but maybe I’ll have to try it once the right way and see This looks like a yummy version here at Friends Food Family.

The Story of the Leprechaun

• Read “The Story of the Leprechaun” by Katherine Tegen … this is one of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day books. It is a cute story explaining why leprechauns hide their gold at the end of a rainbow and why they’re so tricky.

   

• Art & Narration … these are always fun to do. See other narrations here and here.
  1. After you read “The Story of the Leprechaun” a couple of times, have your preschooler tell you the story. I love hearing the parts they pick out and remember.
  2. I just sit at the computer and type out word for word what they say.
  3. Print out their story, leaving space at the top.
  4. Let them cut out a pot from black paper. I found some glittery black paper in my stash that worked well. I loved my 4-year-olds tall pot.
  5. Give them a small squirt of gold paint and a Q-tip and let them fill their pot with lots of gold coin dots. Of course, my 4-year-old ended up just painting with the Q-tip. My 2-year-old did the dots. Whatever works!

 

• Leprechaun Handprint … I also like this idea to illustrate your story above. We might do this next time! These cute pictures are from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.
  1. Paint your palm orange and a little up your arm green.
  2. Press firmly onto a paper to form your leprechaun beard and hat.
  3. Cut out a circle and decorate for the face.
  4. Cut out a green rectangle, yellow rectangle and smaller green rectangle and glue together to make the hat buckle.
  5. OPTIONAL: Add a colorful rainbow and a pot of gold. I love how they used heart-shaped sponges to make shamrocks. So creative!

 

• St. Patrick’s Day Playset … from Family Fun! The little mushroom house might be better for an older child, but these little leprechauns are perfect to print out and play with! Add a handful of plastic gold coins for more creative play.

 

• If I Caught a Leprechaun
  1. Print out a leprechaun clipart (I love the coloring pages from Twisty Noodle, above, because you can customize the text!)
  2. Color & cut out the leprechaun (or don’t cut out)
  3. While the kids are busy, hide their leprechauns around the room.
  4. Let the kids find their sneaky leprechaun.
  5. Glue it to the top of a sheet of paper and write down their response to end the sentence, "If I caught a leprechaun ..." Have them explain what they would do if they caught a leprechaun.

Rainbows for St. Patrick’s Day

• Read “That's What Leprechauns Do” by Eve Bunting … what a cute story about three leprechauns on their way to bury the gold at the end of the rainbow. “No mischief along the way!” they chant, but of course, they get into plenty of mischief along the way.

 

• Gold at the End of the Rainbow Hat … here is a colorful hat (ready to print!) that the kids will love.
  1. Print this wonderful page from Kiboomu.
  2. Color!
  3. Cut out 2” strips from green (or any color) construction paper. Or mark lines for 2” strips and let the kids cut them out! Staple together to make a headband.
  4. Cut out the rainbow and glue it to the headband.
  5. Cut out and glue the shamrocks.
  6. Cut out the pot of gold and glue to the end of the rainbow.

• Rainbow Pasta … how bright and cute are these?! My kids will have fun sorting and playing with rainbow pasta! Visit Kiboomu for a great tutorial.
  1. Put 1/2 cup dry pasta in a ziploc bag.
  2. Add 1/8 cup rubbing alcohol.
  3. Add food coloring and shake until evening colored. Let the pasta sit and soak to get bright colors.
  4. Drain the pasta in the sink and spread on a paper-towel lined tray.
  5. Let dry (about 2 hours)
  6. Make a rainbow or even string them into a rainbow necklace!

• Paper Scraps Rainbow … love this idea from No Time for Flashcards.
  1. On a large piece of paper, draw a large rainbow.
  2. Rip up scraps of paper. I love how they used all sorts of different patterns and hues of the same color.
  3. Start by gluing one color to each rainbow section (so the kids know which colors go where)
  4. Let the kids work together to sort and glue the rest of the scrap colors to the rainbow! I love it!
  5. NOTE: I think after we finish, I’ll sneak a little Pot-o-Treats at the end of the rainbow during naptime as a surprise Probably something like this Pot-o-Gold treat above from No Time for Flashcards.
     • Fill a black cupcake liner with gold-wrapped candies.
     • Tie in a clear bag with rainbow ribbon!

• Snack Idea – Rainbow Fruit Pizza … one of my favorite desserts!
  1. For the crust:
     • 2 cups flour
     • 2 cubes butter, softened
     • 4 Tbls. powdered sugar
  2. Mix and spread on lightly greased round pizza pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Let cool.
  3. For the spread:
     • 1 cup powdered sugar
     • 1 cup cool whip
     • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  4. Mix and spread on cooled crust.
  5. Arrange fruit on top in rainbow order!
     • red strawberries
     • orange mandarin oranges
     • yellow banana slices
     • green kiwi
     • blue blueberries
     • purple grapes

Gold for St. Patrick’s Day

 

• Sneaky Service Leprechauns … We have done this the last couple of years and it makes a great week before St. Patrick’s Day.
  1. The leprechaun leaves us a note and his gold (“he” found the gold coins at Michael’s and Joann). Or get them here .
  2. Whenever we do a secret service for each other, we take a piece of the leprechaun’s gold and leave it for that person to find. So if I made my 3-year-old’s bed, I would leave a gold coin on his pillow.
  3. When he finds the gold, he can put it into the empty pot on the table.
  4. We try to do so much secret service that we fill up the whole pot.
  5. On St. Patrick’s Day, the leprechaun comes and collects his gold and leaves us a pot full of chocolate gold coins and rolos (they’re gold).

• G-O-L-D Hunt
1. Write the letters G-O-L-D on several plastic gold coins (or cut out yellow circle coins).
2. Using 4 bowls, place one letter coin into the bottom of each bowl as a “label” … make sense?
3. Hide the other coins around the room.
4. Tell the kids that the leprechauns spilled their gold and need help picking it up and matching it in the bowls!
5. To make it more fun, have them to an action each time they find a letter. My kids were hilarious
   • If they find a G, they can take GREAT big steps to the bowl!
   • If they find an O, they can spin in a circle
   • If they find an L, they can do LEAPFROG jumps to the bowl.
   • If they find a D, they can DANCE all the way to the bowl

• Silly St. Patrick's Day BINGO
  1. Print out a simple pot-o-gold on a piece of paper. I made a blank pot-o-gold and one filled with ABCs. Just click on either to print!
  2. Draw several ABCs, numbers or shapes inside the pot. Or even better, have them draw their own (just so everyone has the same ones)!
  3. Give the kids a yellow do-a-dot marker.
  4. Call out one of the ABCs, numbers or shapes and let the kids dot the matching symbol with their dot marker (looks like gold, right?!)
  5. When all the ABCs, numbers and shapes are covered up, have them stand up and dance a lucky leprechaun jig!

• Green & Gold Sensory Tub … this great idea is from No Time for Flashcard.
  • Pour split peas and mung beans into a tub or box.
  • Add several plastic gold coins and mini leprechaun hats.
  • Add scoops.
  • Explore, dig, and scoop! And sweep it all up when you’re done!

• Snack Idea: Edible Gold Coins … my kids love these!
  1. Squeeze honey onto circle Ritz crackers.
  2. Place a banana slice on top and sprinkle with green (lucky dust) sugar crystals.
• Treat Idea: Sweet Gold Coins … uh, yum!
  1. You’ll need:
     • 24 Ritz crackers
     • 1 cup smooth peanut butter
     • 2 cups butterscotch chips
  2. Spread peanut butter on one cracker and sandwich it with another. Repeat with all crackers.
  3. Put crackers in the fridge for an hour.
  4. Melt the butterscotch chips (according to package)
  5. Dip the peanut butter sandwiches into the butterscotch and set on wax paper to dry. Enjoy!

Shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day

• Read “Green Shamrocks” by Eve Bunting … what a cute story about a rabbit who plants shamrock seeds to grow in time for St. Patrick’s Day, only to find the pot missing.

• Grow your own Shamrocks
1. In the past I have found little shamrock clover kits at Target in the dollar spot.
2. They come with a little (tiny) pot, instant soil and shamrock seeds. They grow very quickly.
3. I also saw a little terrarium-type kit with shamrock seeds at Michael’s the other day!

   

• Shamrock Dot-to-Dot … a perfect counting activity for St. Patrick’s Day from Kaboomu.
  1. Click here or here to print.
  2. Connect the dots from 1-40, then color!
  3. Or do the A-Z dot-to-dot!

• Shamrock Treasure Hunt … you know that we love treasure hunts around here, so I’m loving this green idea from Little Wonders’ Days!
  1. Fill several Easter eggs (pick out all of the green ones, of course!) with gold coins (or chocolate coins!) or other treats.
  2. Write clues on shamrock cutouts.
  3. Hide the clues along with an egg!

•   Do-a-Dot Shamrock Counting Game
  1. Print out a large shamrock outline. Click on the image above, then right-click to print.
  2. Fill the entire shamrock with nickel-sized circles.
  3. To Play:
     • Roll a dice.
     • Count the dots.
     • Use a green do-a-dot marker to fill in that many shamrock dots.
     • Continue until the shamrock is full!

• Shamrock Pepper Prints
  1. Cut a green bell pepper in half.
  2. Dip the cut end in green paint.
  3. Press onto a white piece of paper to make shamrock prints!
  4. Add a little stem with paint or a green marker.

• Mixing Shamrock Fingerpaints … fun idea from Mommy and Me Book Club 
  • Draw a large shamrock on watercolor paper.
  • Add one blob of blue paint + one blob of yellow paint.
  • Use your fingers to mix the paint to create green.
  • Let dry, then cut out your beautiful shamrock!
• Sparkling Shamrocks
  • Fold a paper in half and cut out a white paper shamrock.
  • Unfold and let the kids paint one half blue and the other half yellow (fairly thick).
  • Refold the shamrock, smoothing from the fold outward.
  • Open up and sprinkle with a little green glitter. Wow!

• Treat Idea: Shamrock Shakes … my kids will be in heaven with these
  1. Scoop vanilla bean ice cream into a blender.
  2. Add several mint Oreos.
  3. Add a little milk.
  4. Blend to milkshake consistency. Enjoy!