St. Patrick's Day Activities

Yes, it has been nearly a year since I have posted. I'm sorry about that. Life has been incredibly busy. At the end of last year, I was one of the many teachers laid off from my county. I spent a good part of my summer looking for a job and my husband and I were praying about if/where we should locate. We ended up selling our house and relocating near my hometown so that we could be closer to my parents. Now I'm teaching full-time again and I'm also taking some college courses so that I can add on to my teaching certificate. I'm desperately longing for some lazy summer days!

I hope you enjoy these St. Patrick's Day crafts!

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1. Green Collage



These green collages are a simple activity to do and each one is unique. I simply looked through our craft supply cabinets and pulled out a bunch of different green items. We used green pom poms, foam stickers, sticks, sequins, tissue paper, feathers, etc and glued them onto a green shamrock.

2. Gadget painting

I have mentioned these gadget/cookie cutter paintings before. They are cute, easy, and each one looks different. The kids enjoy the gadget painting. In January we made one with snowmen, in February we made one with hearts, and as you see here we did shamrocks in March. In April we will probably paint with baby chicks, eggs, and bunnies.

3. Shamrock necklace

Source: busybeekidscrafts.com via Karen on Pinterest

We were going to make these shamrock necklaces, but somehow time got away from us. I'll save this idea for next year.

4. Tissue Paper Shamrocks

We made the tissue paper shamrocks last year. It is similar to the green collage.

What kinds of St. Patrick's Day activities have you tried?

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Tissue Paper Shamrocks

Since I teach special needs preschool I am always on the look out for easy craft ideas that all of the children can do and that will help them improve their motor skills. Since St. Patrick's Day is this week we made these tissue paper shamrocks. They were so simple to do and the kids seemed to enjoy it. These shamrocks were still a little wet when I took the picture, but you can imagine how the finished product looks.

To make the shamrocks: I did a google search for a shamrock template and used it to cut out shamrocks from green paper. Then I let the kids paint the glue onto the paper. Painting the glue works much better than squeezing it on. It allows for better control and avoids a big glob on the paper. Then the children put little green squares of tissue paper onto the paper.

Simple and easy. :)

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Patriotic Crafts from FamilyFun

If there's one thing that parents really enjoy, it is handprint crafts from kids. I know many of you will enjoy this eagle handprint design. FamilyFun has it the design on a t-shirt but I'm sure you could use this idea in many ways.

More patriotic ideas from FamilyFun:

Confetti Launcher: Fireworks happen only after dark, but this craft creates a pop of color any time of day. Kids pull back on the string to release a shower of tissue paper confetti, then gather it up and refill the launcher again.and again.and again.

Wig and Tutu in One: Powdered wigs are so 1776. Celebrate the Fourth in 2010 sporting a crazy red, white, and blue pompadour. Or, if you prefer, wear the tulle creation as a tutu. *You can have this craft done in 30 minutes or less.*

Spirited Bike Spinner: Old Glory won't be the only thing blowing in the breeze this Fourth. Made from a strategically snipped and bent plastic bottle wrapped in tape, this colorful bike accessory twirls in the air as your kids pedal.

A Patri-botic Centerpiece: Do U need a GR8 helper 4 yours picnic on the 4th? Well, this is one can-do robot. His recycled-can head holds a hair-raising array of utensils, and a clear container belly keeps cookies safe from eager little hands until it's time for dessert.

A Star-spangled Welcome: This bunting-inspired paper wreath will look as snappy as a salute on your front door.

Do you have any favorite patriotic crafts?

image: Disney FamilyFun

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Hello Cupcake! Easter Egg Cupcakes

Duncan Hines® helps you create delicious family moments with decadent recipes even the tiniest pair of hands in your family can help make. Baking at home with family creates unforgettable moments and fills the holidays with that priceless feeling of togetherness.

Created by the authors of the popular cupcake decorating book Hello Cupcake!™. This is a fun Easter project to make with the kids or with your baking friends. All it takes are easy-to-find ingredients, fun food dye colors and delicious frosting. Easter Egg Cupcakes aren't hard to make -- but they’re sure to impress as gifts, or to decorate your holiday table.






Ingredients:

• 12 unfrosted Moist Deluxe Devil’s Food Cake Mix cupcakes baked in white paper liners
• 12 honey graham crackers
• 2 cans (16 ounces) Creamy Homestyle Classic Vanilla Frosting
• Green, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and pink food coloring
• 2 tablespoons each mini and regular white, pink, green, and blue decorations

Baking Instructions:

1. Tint 2 cups of the frosting light green. Spoon 1 1/2 cups of the light green frosting into a zippered plastic bag. Tint 1/2 cup each of vanilla frosting pink, light blue, light purple, orange, and yellow. Spoon 2 tablespoons each into zippered plastic bags. Press out the excess air in each of the bags, seal, and set aside.

2. Using a serrated knife, trim the graham crackers into an egg shape 3 1/2 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide. Snip a small corner (1/4 inch) from the bag with the 1 1/2 cups of green frosting and pipe a small dollop on top of each cupcake and place a graham cracker on top, pressing down to secure. The cracker will hang over the edge of the cupcake. Freeze the cupcakes for 10 to 15 minutes to set.

3. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of each tinted frosting into a separate microwavable bowl. Working with one color at a time, microwave the frosting, stirring frequently, until it is the texture of lightly whipped cream, 20 to 30 seconds. Holding a chilled cupcake by the paper liner dip the graham cracker into the melted frosting to coat, turn right side up and let stand. Continue with all of the cupcakes and graham crackers making two eggs of each color.

4. Snip very small corners (1/8 inch) from the bags with the 2 tablespoons of frosting. Pipe decorative dots, lines, and dashes on top of the frosting-coated crackers. Using the bag with the 1 1/2 cups of light green frosting, pipe dots of frosting around base of each egg always pulling the peak away from the egg (be sure to cover any exposed cupcake).

5. While the frosting is still wet add candy decors to create decorative patterns.

For more recipes, visit Duncan Hines.

image and recipe courtesy of Duncan Hines

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St. Patrick's Day Ideas from FamilyFun Magazine

St. Patrick's Day isn't far away and as always, Disney's FamilyFun Magazine has loads of cute ideas to make your holiday a success.

Crafts and Games

Wee Leprechaun: Make-your-own leprechaun!
Make a Festive Bowl-er: Create leprechaun hats by painting and embellishing paper bowls. (p. 34)
St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt: Follow fun all the way to a faux pot of gold.
To Catch A Leprechaun: Three clever traps for taking a stand against St. Patrick's Day mischief: Leprechaun Hat Pit Trap, Rainbow Cage Drop, Tricky Trapdoor
Green Stamp: Spread the luck o' the Irish this St. Patrick's Day with a homemade shamrock stamp. Use it to decorate paper place mats, coasters, tablecloths, or anything else your little leprechauns wish to dress in green.

Recipes

St. Patty’s Day Platter: Use a colorful variety of fruits for a rainbow platter. Marshmallows can act as the cloud at the end of the rainbow, and bananas for the pot of gold! (p. 29)
Clover Cookies: For St. Patrick's Day (March 17), or any day you feel like you need a little extra luck, bake up a batch of these cheerful green shamrock cookies. Give some to your friends and classmates, so they will be lucky, too.
Taste a Rainbow Cupcakes: Here's what little leprechauns look forward to on St. Patrick's Day: a magical snack that can add color to the grayest March afternoon. Pot of gold not included.
Luck of the Irish Cupcakes: It's not far to the gold at the end of this rainbow-topped Emerald Isle cupcake, just the thing for your lads and lasses on St. Patrick's Day.

Shamrock Cupcakes: It doesn't take the luck of the Irish to make these St. Patty's Day treats look so sweet -- just a clever baking technique.

St. Patrick’s Pot of Gold: Surprise your favorite little people on March 17th with these wee emerald pots filled with sweet, edible gold.

Enjoy the ideas!

Permission to print from FamilyFun.

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Happy Birthday, President Lincoln!

Today is Lincoln's birthday. Here is an idea to help celebrate.

Thanks to my friend Karen for the picture.

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Happy Mother's Day!

To the tune of Happy Birthday

Happy Mother's Day to you
Happy Mother's Day to you
Happy Mother's Day dear _______
Happy Mother's Day to you

In the blank you can use Mommy, Grandma, Mawmaw, or someone's name.

Happy Mother's Day everyone! :)

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St. Patrick's Day Fun

Kids Domain has clip art, recipes, activities, crafts, and games.

St. Patrick's Day Parade - click on gallery to see pictures from previous parades

ABC Teach has a nice selection of songs, printables for various ages, and other useful resources.

Enchanted Learning has a few cute craft ideas.

The History Channel gives some history behind the holiday.

First School

Child Fun

DLTK

Activity Idea Place

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Christmas Plays for Children

The secretary at my church asked if I knew of some easy Christmas plays for children. I did some searching today and thought my Little Fun readers might have interest in them too.

• The Littlest Christmas Tree - This is the one I suggested for the preschoolers at our church. It should be fairly easy because there is a narrator and the songs are set to tunes the children already know.


• The Christmas Story


• Christmas Around the World


• Quick Christmas Pageant


• Christmas Skit


• Preschool Pageant


• A Crossword Puzzle - Santa's Reindeer Christmas Play


• A Christmas Alphabet Poem


• Christmas Songs - Some of these songs, as well as other Christmas songs, could be put in an order that tells the Christmas story.


• The Perfect Gift

Feel free to put links to other Christmas play and skits in the comments.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope your day is surrounded by the ones you love.

Due to the holidays, there will not be a Fun-Filled Friday post this week. Next week I plan to begin posting lots of Christmas ideas. Be sure to check out the archives. There's plenty there to choose from.

By the way, what are you thankful for?

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Thanksgiving Place Mat

Here is a cute idea for a Thanksgiving place mat. You write "I am thankful for . . . " and then have the child draw pictures of things for which they're thankful. It looks like this particular mat has die cut leaves around it. You could cut some out yourself and/or have your child help you. If you don't feel too creative, then a plain colored border would work too.

Have your children made anything for Thanksgiving?

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Mother's Day

Only a couple of days until Mother's Day?! How did it catch me unaware?

Mother's Day is the perfect time for your child to get creative and for you to emphasize the importance of thinking about others. Encourage your child to make something for the special women in his/her life (grandmothers, aunts, teachers, etc.).

Here are some of my favorite presents I have received for Mother's Day.

• black and white photos of my children in a black wooden frame with a white mat
• anything with my girls' hand prints on it - I love to see how their hand size changes
• books - I love to read!

I thought these were good and simple activities for Mother's Day.

• Over at Thrifty Mommy, my friend Karen shares a Thrifty Mother's Day Craft that she had her preschool class do this year. Thrifty Mommy is also where I found the link to Mommy, are the toys on sale? which offers this incredibly cute, incredibly frugal Mother's Day craft featuring (of all things) dryer lint. Who would have thought dryer lint could become a thing of beauty?
  
• Perpetual Preschool offers dozens of Mother's Day Gift Ideas.
• Mycraftbook offers 3 pages of Mother's Day Crafts for Kids. I love that these ideas are labeled with the appropriate age. I saw crafts for kids in Preschool, Elementary, and 10+.
• DLTK's Growing Together not only features crafts but also offers Mother's Day Recipes for children (and fathers) to make. What a nice surprise that would be! Of course, if you suggested this, it wouldn't be surprise. *laugh* No entrees are offered, but anything made by your children is bound to be sweet.

I hope every one of you has a wonderful Mother's Day.

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In celebration of Christ's Resurrection

We pause today to remember Christ's wonderful and miraculous resurrection. Thank you, Lord, that You not only died to save us from our sins but that You also proved your power over death, sin, and hell by rising from the dead. Thank You that we serve a risen and soon-coming Lord.

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Easter

Easter is one of the most significant of our Christian holidays, for without Christ's resurrection there would be no salvation. I tell my girls that, while it is a lot of fun to eat chocolate bunnies and hunt for eggs, Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead.

Here are some links to aid you in teaching your child about the true meaning of Easter.

• DLTK's Growing Together offers complete teacher's guides for not only the Resurrection but also the events of the preceding week: the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, and Jesus Loves You. Each of the lesson guides includes links to corresponding activities and crafts.
• Sunday School Network.com was a new site to me, but they have a lot of Easter-related crafts and activities. Easter treat ideas include a Candy Palm Tree, Empty Tomb Snack, Resurrection Cookies, and more. Crafts include Jesus Arise!, the Empty Tomb, and the Mosaic Cross, and several more activities.
• Shirley's Preschool Activities offers many coloring pages for Easter. Scroll down a little to find them past the advertisements; it's definitely worth your time. This website also features a page of Christian Easter Crafts such as the Golgotha Silhouette, Easter Fingerplay, and a Jelly Bean Easter Poem.

I will write another post for "springtime" activities and crafts that you may find useful for this time of year, but I wanted to emphasize that Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection. How do you teach your child the true meaning of Easter?

resurrection photo courtesy of fotosearch.com

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More Valentine's Day activities

A lot of people have been looking for crafts and activities to do with Hershey's Kisses. I've found a few of those crafts as well as more Valentine's-related ideas.

Family Fun.com offers this very cute Valentine's Day Blast Off Rocket Candy Card. (Whew! That's a mouthful!) This craft features both a Hershey's Kiss and a roll of hard candy, such as Life Savers.

Perpetual Preschool offers many, many Valentine's Day ideas submitted by readers. Submissions include instructions for creating candy necklaces, handmade cards, hand print flower bouquets, play dough hand print hearts, Valentine's mailboxes, room decorations, and so much more.

BlessingsforLife.com offers unique ideas including Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies, several varieties of Homemade Hearts, Hershey Kiss Roses, and A Box of Love. You can also read about the Origins of St. Valentine and Valentine's Day or choose a special saying from three pages of Valentine's Day quotations.

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Celebrating President's Day

Unsure of the origins of Presidents' Day, I ran a search and found a very helpful site, InfoPlease, which gave very interesting and in-depth information. According to a portion of their information, the third Monday in February (this year it's the 19th) is the Federal holiday known as Washington's Birthday and was created to celebrate only George Washington's birthday, which is actually February 22. InfoPlease went on to state that whether you celebrate President's Day or Washington's Birthday may depend on where you live. Washington's Birthday is a federal holiday, but states are not obliged to observe such holidays. Consequently, while the majority of states celebrate Washington's Birthday, there are about a dozen that celebrate President's Day, and several more celebrate Lincoln's Birthday as a separate holiday.

Having passed on that interesting bit of trivia, here are some ideas for celebrating President's Day.

• Preschool Rainbow offers a Preschool Holiday Art and Craft Activities page which includes three activities related to President's Day. One is especially simple: let the child use different coins to create pencil rubbings. Discuss the president pictured on the coin.
• Perpetual Preschool has many activities for President's Day including a fun yet simple coin toss game (intended to celebrate Lincoln's Birthday but could modify for Washington's birthday or President's Day). The President's Day Art page includes ideas for making wigs, painting cherry trees, creating Lincoln cabins using 8 oz. milk cartons and a penny, and creating simple silhouettes.
• Enchanted Learning, a site I had not previously visited, features a Activities, Worksheets, and Crafts for President's Day page that is chock full of useful ideas such as their easy-to-make Lincoln's Hat craft, George Washington, I Can... A Printable Book, Abraham Lincoln: A Printable Book, Washington Monument printout, and Mt. Rushmore printout.
• Preschool Express by Jean Warren offers a President's Day Theme page which includes ideas for art, counting, movement, science, music, and snack time.
• Apples 4 the Teacher offers seven printable George Washington short stories and twelve printable Abraham Lincoln short stories.
  

President's Day clipart courtesy of fotosearch.com

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