Green Play Day - Everyday Funday

*Miniclass video is coming at the end of the post*

St.Patrick’s Day is coming and we are already seeing a lot of St.Patrick’s Day activities on the internet. Making rainbows, leprechauns, pot of gold, shamrocks and so on.

I think it’s good to know about different cultural holidays whether I celebrate them in my house or not. Same for children, but I believe activities around the special holidays should be age appropriate for children.

If you think you can’t make your child understand the story about leprechauns, don’t set up an activity about leprechauns. We don’t want our children to just practice their fine motor skills in an activity. We want our children to think and learn new things while they are playing.

So I think, for toddlers – who are not familiar with St.Patrick’s Day yet – just introducing a few symbols of St.Patrick’s Day will be a good start.

“People who celebrate St.Patrick’s Day, they celebrate the day with colour green and shamrock/clover is another big symbol of St.Patrick’s Day.”

I suggest to try having a green play day with your little learner if you are just starting to introduce St.Patrick’s Day.

How to Have a Green Play Day

Make your clover stamp

Materials

Empty yogurt cup (or any small container with flat bottom)
Heart-shaped foams
Liquid glue
Drawing paper
Paint (shades of green)

How to

Turn an empty yogurt cup upside down.
Squeeze some glue on top of the yogurt cup.
Put 4 heart-shaped foams together.
Make different sizes of clover with different sizes of heart foam.
Let them dry.

Check if all the heart-shaped foams are perfectly fixed on the yogurt cup.

Spread some green paint on top of the heart-shaped foams.

Turn the yogurt cup and stamp with your clover stamp on a drawing paper.

Just enjoy the process of stamping and making clover marks, or children can try making patterns or designs.

Tip: My yogurt cup bottom was not 100% flat, so I had to press the centre a little bit. It was not a big deal but if you have a perfectly flat container, that will make the work easier for children.

Children can add glitters before the paint dries. (optional)

2. Count and add clovers in the right pot.

Materials

“Add Clovers to the Pots” templates

How To

Print out “Add Clovers to the Pots” templates.
Cut each clover out. (Just in square.)
Choose between small clovers and big clovers. (Use one set of clovers at a time for precise measurement and comparison.)
Give all the clovers of one set to your child.
Child can read the number on the pot and fill it with the clovers.

Compare the numbers on the pots and the height of each pot.

“Which one is bigger, 3 or 5? Let’s compare their height.”
“The last pot also has number 5 on it. Is it the same height as the other number 5 pot?

Try with different set of clovers, too.

3. Find 5 green things in your house.

Materials

“5 Green Things” templates
Items in your house
Pencil
Markers/crayons

How To

Print out “5 Green Things” templates.
Put the five pages in order. (See the numbers on the square.)
Ask your child to go look around the house and find five green things that s/he likes.
In the square section of the template, children can draw one of the five items. (Or a grown-up can help taking photos of the items and printing them out.)
Help children write the name of each item.
Talk about why they like the items and a grown-up can help the writing part.
Fill all the five pages.

4. Read the book “Green” and make art.

Materials

Book “Green” by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Drawing paper
Paints (green, yellow, blue, white etc.)
Paint palette
Paint brush
Shape punch (or scissors)
Glue

How To

Read the book “Green” and observe all different shades of green.
On a paint palette, try making different shades of green by mixing different colours of paints.
Fill a drawing paper with different shades of green.
Fill 2 or 3 drawing papers.
Let them dry.
When they are dry, cut out any shapes with a shape punch. (If you don’t have a shape punch, you can just cut them into strips and help your child to snip and make small squares.
Create different things out of small pieces of green papers.