17 Fun & Easy St. Patrick’s Day Activities For Preschoolers

This post is about 17 fun and easy St. Patrick’s Day activities to do with preschoolers. It includies crafts, learning, movement, books and cooking with kids. All opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you, should you make a purchase.

We love to celebrate all the holidays at my house. However, if you’re like me, you need simple and quick. As a mom of four, there’s no time for complicated, grand plans. While I’m making a grand plan, my four kids could conspire a takeover. So we move fast and keep it simple in my house.

Most of these activities for preschoolers require little to no prep. You can probably find what you need lying around the house. This is my kind of magic- I can whip it up on a moment’s notice and everyone is happy.

There is magic in the mess

When you do projects with preschoolers, the mess is inevitable. When my kids were younger, we did a lot of hands-on activities. We were always making something, usually a mess.

Learning is sometimes messy. Embrace it. Kids learn through play. Many of these activities involve some kind of learning- cognitive development, and fine and gross motor skills, and they’re all fun (and they’re not all messy).

While your kids are making a mess. try to value process over product. The learning is in the process. The process is often messy and imperfect. The little humans I work with now love to make a mess. It’s important to encourage independence and focus on the process.

I know it’s hard to clean up one more mess when you’ve been home with the kids all day. And after a long day at work, the mess is probably the last thing you want to deal with. There’s always the weekend! And you could pour some wine into your travel mug and sip while you’re making magic with your kids. I won’t judge you.

So here’s my list of 17 fun activities to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your preschoolers (and your older kids will love these too)!

Easy Craft Projects

Rainbow Chain

All you need to make this cute hanging decoration is some construction paper, scissors, a glue stick, and a little glitter if you’re feeling brave.

Paper Plate Rainbow

Super simple. A paper plate, construction paper, cotton balls, and a glue stick and you’re all set to make this adorable project.

Marshmallow Shamrock Stamping

Paper, green paint, and a handful of marshmallows are all you need to make these shamrocks.

Button Shamrock

If you have some old buttons thrown in a junk drawer, you just need some glue and green paper and you’ve got a shamrock!

Leprechaun Lookers

A cute pair of leprechaun lookers might be just what you need to find and catch a leprechaun this year.

Your Lucky Little Leprechauns Won’t Even Know They’re Learning

Stringing A Rainbow

There’s a ton of learning here. Colored pasta can be used for color recognition, counting, sorting, and stringing, Stringing is an important skill for fine motor development and hand-eye coordination. You can also use this as a sensory experience for young children. Therefore, you can squeeze a lot of learning into one activity. From http://www.giftofcuriosity.com. To learn how to color pasta, click below:

Magic Fizzing Shamrocks

This activity is messy, fun, creative, and scientific, so you can have a little chemistry lesson while you’re having fun. Go to http://www.giftofcuriosity.com for instructions.

Shamrock Garland

Not only is this a cute decoration, for St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s an easy way to reinforce number recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence when counting, and number order. You can use it to reinforce basic addition for elementary-age kids. In sum, you can sneak in a little math and your kids won’t even realize they’re learning. Additionally, your kids can use a hole puncher, which strengthens their small muscles (and kids love to punch holes in paper). And the stringing also encourages small motor development and eye-hand coordination. This simple activity packs a lot of learning.

Rainbow Math Game

If you’re looking for a multi-tasking activity, this one will be a hit, because it’s a game, a math activity, and a snack, all in one! This is a busy mom’s dream come true. If you have younger kids, identifying, sorting, and matching colors may be enough. If your kids can count, you’ll need some dice and you can get more information at http://www.housingaforest.com.

I don’t typically get kids all hopped up on sugar cereal, but sometimes you just have to roll with it. After this activity, your kid might be bouncing off the walls. Don’t worry because the next set of activities will have your kids burning off that extra energy.

Leapin’ Leprechauns! Let’s Get Moving!

Kids need to move. They use their whole bodies to learn. Movement activities encourage listening and following directions, as well as developing those large muscles. Here are a few activities that are low or no-prep, and big on fun.

Would You Rather?

This St. Patrick’s Day edition is a lot of fun for the whole family and requires no prep, no mess, and they’ll burn off that sugar high you just gave them eating colored cereal. They’ll be working on gross motor skills and you’ll have roughly 8 minutes to enjoy a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while they exhaust themselves.
Simply click below.

Scavenger Hunt

You can use this scavenger hunt just the way it is. Again, it’s ready to go, or you can modify it to user friendly for your preschooler. Click HERE to grab a copy. Get your kids moving and thinking with very little effort on your part.

Go On A Gold Hunt

Similarly, this video will have your preschoolers up and running, pushing, hopping, and swimming to find the leprechaun’s gold. Just click and you have an instant favorite. I use this video A LOT with the tiny humans I work with.

Make Magic In the Kitchen

Shamrock Shake

This is super easy to whip up with your kids. All you need is vanilla ice cream, milk, a little mint extract, and some green food coloring. Toss it all in a blender and enjoy.

Green Pancakes

Pancakes are everyone’s favorite in my house. Start the day off with green pancakes. If you’re like the rest of us busy moms, just squeeze a few drops of green food coloring into your favorite boxed pancake mix.

Leprechaun bait

If your kids think they’re going to catch a leprechaun this St. Patrick’s Day, you’re going to need some bait to lure it. You could really mix any jumble of whatever is in your pantry. Leprechauns aren’t picky eaters. As long as you toss something green into the mix, I think you’ll catch one. Pro tip: remember that pasta you colored to string? Just throw the green ones in if you don’t have green candy to add. If you end up nibbling this leprechaun bait after your kids go to bed, be sure to pair it with a dry wine to balance out the sweetness.

Read!

Lastly, read, read, read! Here are a few of my favorite fun St. Patrick’s Day books for preschoolers.

Making Magic Can Be Simple

Kids love to celebrate holidays and even the simplest activities will be memorable if you share the experience with them. Being a mom means you’re always busy. It’s hard to find time to do the fun stuff with kids sometimes. Most of these activities require little to no prep. They are fun and easy for preschoolers, but can still have a big impact, so you can make magic.

Drop a comment below and let me know if you tried any of these activities with your kids and tell me about the magic you created this St. Patrick’s Day.