6 Super Fun (Easy Prep) St. Patrick's Day Inspired Toddler Activities

Over the past two or so weeks, my daughter and I have been trying and adapting some toddler activities that I have found on Pinterest. The six included in this list are the ones that we have deemed worthy enough to share with other parents looking for fun ideas to get their little ones (and themselves) into the St. Patty's mood. And here they are in no particular order:

#1: Shamrock Cork Stamp --

First off, you and your other adult friends and family need to drink 3 bottles of wine. Once done, tape those 3 corks together in the shape of a shamrock. Then simply give it to your child to dab in some green paint and stamp away making a lovely picture of mini shamrocks worthy of fridge-hanging.

#2: "Digging for Leprechaun's Gold" Sensory Bin --

This one will take minutes to put together. You will need a tub (or bowl), some cheap gold coins (I got mine from the Dollar Tree), and some type of medium to hide those coins in. I used baking soda so that my daughter and I could use it again for another activity, but you could use whatever you have laying around: beans, rice, flour (messy), birdseed, even good old dirt! Once you have your coins hidden in whatever medium you chose, let your little one dig for their coins. You can give them some tools to work with; like a spoon, colander, etc.

#3: Marbling Rolling Shamrock Painting --

I used 3 heart-shaped doilies for this one, but if you are fresh out of these you could always just cut out a shamrock shaped piece of paper. Anyways, you take your doilies or paper and tape it to the bottom of a cake pan, then drop some marbles in with some green paint, and finally place the lid on top. Hand this to your child and let them explore and roll the marbles back and forth while spreading the paint. Let dry and tape together to look like a shamrock. Hang, step back, and admire your child's creation.

#4: Baking Soda and Vinegar Treasure Dig --

Remember that sensory bin from 2 paragraphs up? Remember that my daughter and I used baking soda? That's because we used some of the remaining baking soda in this activity. I transferred some of it to a shallow dish and let her play in it again while digging out all her gold coins. Once she got bored, I introduced some green vinegar and let her go crazy. She loves the bubbles and this is definitely one of our favorite activities!

#5: Rainbow Bath Puff Paint --

Another simple prep and you do not have to make it into a fancy rainbow shape like I did, because remember this is going to a toddler who doesn't care and who is going to mess it up in seconds. Mix food coloring with shaving cream. That's it. Then give it to your child in the tub to make a grand ol' mess. Clean up is easy since it's already in the tub.

#6: Shamrock Sun Catchers --

Tape some coffee filters to a hard surface and let your child color them with markers. After they are done, I taped them to a window and helped my daughter spray them with some water and we watched the colors blend. I then let them dry for a couple of hours before cutting them into the shape of a shamrock and hanging them in our front window.

I hope you enjoy some doing some of these activities with your children and making memories. Keep an eye out for our Easter activities that we will be doing within the next few weeks. Some are already up on the blog. Go ahead and add me on Instagram, @NapTimeBloggerMom, and you can see my daughter's and my daily adventures and maybe get some ideas for you and your family.

St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Cork Stamp

Why shamrocks? Why has this small, weedy plant become the face and main symbol of St. Patrick's Day? According to an article written by Michelle Gervais, the number three was always a mystical number to the Celtic religion. Since white clover (shamrocks) had three leaves, they became a sacred plant used by the Irish Druids. Enter St. Patrick. As he traveled Ireland spreading Christianity in the 5th century, St. Patrick used this sacred Celtic symbol to help introduce the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. 

Now once a year, we use his sacred day to turn our homes and selves (and beer) green. Woo-hoo! This fun child craft uses wine corks taped together as a stamp to make shamrocks. It's really that easy. First you need to drink three bottles of wine ;). Tape those corks together and dip them in green paint. Then let your child loose on a piece of paper. 

This was my daughter's first try at stamping. Check out her intense concentration while she figures it out. Eventually, stamping got a little mundane for my her taste. So I got out a brush and she quickly brushed over all her beautiful shamrocks. Oops! Oh well. Maybe this painting will end up in the trash rather than the fridge :).

St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Marble Painting

We've been on one heck of St. Patrick's Day binge! My last posts were a St. Patty's Day Sensory Bin and a St. Patty's Day Science Project, but now I need some little crafty something from my daughter to hang up for some green decorations for when the day finally is upon us. And here is what I settled on.

I have some leftover paper heart doilies from Valentine's Day that I had bought from the Dollar Store in February. I'm sure you could find some year round at a big craft store near the wedding or cake-baking area. Anyways, my idea is to take 3 hearts to make a clover and let my daughter finger paint them. Well...they are very deliate and tear easily, so I needed a way she couldn't get her little finger on the doilies. Enter, marble painting. I have always loved this idea on Pinterest, but have never put it into use. For our first try, it went fantastic.

It was the very first thing we did in the morning after breakfast (my little one wasn't even out of her pjs). Set up was a snap, literally only taking less than 3 minutes. I taped 3 doilies down on the bottom of a cake pan, speckled some green paint in there, and threw in 10 marbles.

Then I handed it to my daughter and showed her how the marbles moved when she shook it or tipped it. She did the rest.

Afterwards, I pulled up the doilies and set them to the side to dry. Once dry, I glued them down to a piece of paper and used a green popsicle stick as a stem. Now, I have an adorable marble-painted clover for my daughter's craft wall in the kitchen and I love it.

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Box (Part 2) -- Baking Soda and Vinegar Play

This is Part 2 of my previous post, St. Patrick's Day Sensory Box (Part 1) -- Sifting for Leprechaun's Gold, where I placed gold coins, buttons, and rocks into a bin full of baking soda and let my 18-month-old explore and search for gold.

Now what the heck am I suppose to do with that box full of baking soda? Reuse it for another fun activity, of course! Pour some into a shallow dish; coins, buttons, and rocks all. Then give your little one a small container of vinegar colored green with some food coloring.

We used a small liquid dropper to add the vinegar. I like these because they only add a little bit of vinegar at a time instead of dumping it all at once (it stretches out play time). You could also think if using a spray bottle or have your older child practice spooning small amounts of vinegar. 

Anyways, before I even let Rose have the vinegar I let her play with the baking soda again. She immediately stuck her hands in and began searching for all of her gold coins, as you can see in the picture above. This is a great time to practice counting. We put the coins into piles of 3 (since we are just now learning to count, 3 is the highest we get to).

After all the coins were found and counted multiple times, I gave Rose the green-light for the green vinegar. As always, she had a blast watching the bubbles form and then playing in the mushy mess. Click here for a fun baking soda play dough (at the time, we used it as fake snow) that can then be used to later "melt" whatever you create. 

Once all the vinegar is used, why stop playing? We used our found gold to make a pretty face. As you can tell, Rose was not amused.