St. Patrick's Day for Preschool

I do a home based preschool with my 4 year old son.  We rotate with a couple of other families and each take turns hosting.  Today was my turn to host and we decided to do a St. Patrick's Day theme.  I think it's important to teach kids what the different holidays are about so they understand why we do the crazy things or traditions we do at that time of year.

We started out with a normal beginning and then talked about why we celebrate St. Patrick.  I had totally forgotten the legend that he had cast out all the snakes in Ireland and learned for the first time that he was actually not from Ireland originally. 

After our educational circle time we did a little scavenger hunt to find some hidden gold.  I more than LOVE doing scavenger hunts and try to slip them into our traditions as much as possible.  I usually write my own clues but because I procrastinated this I turned to pinterest and found this little gem. 

The girls at The Crafting Chicks had this hunt already to go with free printables.  Thank you!

 

For our crafts we made hand print four leaf clovers.  I'm a total sucker for anything with hand prints because I want to have something to remember how little they were and to watch them grow.

 

And while they weren't doing their hand prints they worked on lacing their rainbow and four leaf clover.   I made these out of fun craft foam and then punched holes in them.  I used yarn instead of shoe laces because it was much cheaper.  Buying these lacing activities can get pricey!  I did put some tape on each end of the yarn so it would easier to use for little fingers and not fray.

 

 Lacing activities are great for hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. Now if I could only get my active boy to sit still long enough to do it!

 

For snacks they gobbled up this small rainbow fruit tray.

 

And they devoured one of our family favorites homemade oreos!  I told them that the leprechauns like to play silly tricks and they gave our cookies green frosting.  You can find this recipe here.

 

To make our drink a little more fun I made rainbow ice cubes by putting one drop of food coloring in each.  I forgot to get clear plastic cups so I had to use my real tumblers and I'm happy to report that none got broken. The boys thought this was awesome and were more than willing to drink their rainbow water.  I will have to do this more often because it was so simple.

I absolutely love doing preschool with my little guy.  I love watching him learn, grow and interact.  I wouldn't miss this for the world!  I also love holidays because they get me to do fun stuff with my family!