I’ll be honest with you: I’m not Irish. Not even a little bit. I’m 1st generation Canadian and both my parents and all of my grandparents were born in Holland. But you know what we Dutch immigrant families eat a LOT of? Meat & potatoes, not unlike the Irish. And, let’s face it, both the Dutch and the Irish make fantastic beer. So I feel a sort of kinship with the Irish. They just get to drink a bit more than we do. For these reasons, I’m happy to celebrate with the Irish on March 17th. Plus: Green Beer. ‘Nuff said.
So, we’re getting our St Patty’s Day crafting on in this house in preparation for the big day. And because I really need more colour in my life right now: let’s face it, this snow isn’t going anywhere any time soon – there’s a good foot and a half of snow in our back yard.
This is a really easy craft, and especially good for the young ones, since it involves 1 paper plate and 1 colour of paint. If you’ve got older kids, they could try cutting the shamrock themselves.When I do painting with my kids, I like to tape the object of the paint to the table to minimize frustration and mess. Have the kids paint the bottom side of a thin paper plate (I bought a stack of 20 of them at the dollar store for crafting) green, and let dry.
If you have extra plates lying around, gently fold the plate in half and cut the centre out of one and try it on the kids’ heads so that you get an idea of how big or small the hole in their plate should be when you cut it out. I also used my spare paper plate to practice making a shamrock.
If you don’t feel comfortable freehanding it, take a pencil and make a quick sketch on the plate (with the plate still folded) – a stem at the bottom, a small heart, and then, at the top, half of a larger heart. Cut your along your sketch lines, and unfold plate – voila, a Shamrock Hat for St Patrick’s Day!
I don’t know if your kids ask as many questions as my 3 year old does, but I find that I end up learning a lot when I do crafts with him since he asks the questions. Here’s why you see a lot of shamrocks around St Patrick’s Day:
All photos Copyright Jennifer vanOosten.
Jennifer vanOosten, and her sister Marya, are two every-day moms inspired by your pins. They blog at YouPinspireMe.
Cute idea, thank you for sharing.