Tuesday, March 17, 2015

St. Patrick's Day!

In our 3+ years of tot schooling, we have never done a St. Patrick's Day theme! It falls so close to Little M&M's birthday, that we usually just ignore it. This year we took a break from the party prep, and threw together a few impromptu activities and treats! Take a look.

Shamrock Lacing

I printed an image of a shamrock onto green cardstock, punched some holes around them (putting more in Honey Pot's than in Little M&M's) and provided each of the kids with a shoelace.


It's been a while since we've done lacing, and it was a nice diversion from the usual fine motor activities we do.


The first time through, I let Little M&M do it however he pleased. Then I asked if he wanted to see how I would do it, and we completed it together that way.


Honey Pot is familiar with the technique, and I kept hearing her say "up through this one, down through this one." She did a pretty great job, only skipping one hole accidentally.



Pot of Gold - Roll and Cover

This cute printable comes from totschooling. They provide files for both a one die and a two dice version. We stuck with one die so that Little M&M could participate fully. He really seems to be picking up on his numbers recently!


They took turns, rolling the die and covering each number with a golden coin that we had from Honey Pot's Peter Pan party. Super simple, and yet it is such a hit from start to finish.


Little M&M working hard on his one-to-one correspondence:



In the end, it came down to whom could roll a five first. It was fun competition for them!



Fruit Loop Rainbow Craft

I have been seeing Fruit Loops everywhere! We finally picked up a box and used it to make incredible rainbows. At first I was going to give them a template, but I didn't like any of them enough. So I simply drew a small arc for their bottom color, and we worked from there. Great color-sorting activity!


This craft is not for those with a short attention span. I was actually surprised with Little M&M's commitment to finishing!



And Honey Pot worked so diligently on her project!


We added some stretched and pulled cotton balls to the ends of the rainbows. Such a beautiful craft!


Green Foods

This was a lot of fun to put together for dinner tonight. I filled our plates with green foods that the kids would actually eat. Sadly, broccoli and peas are not favorites around here. Spinach, yes! But since we eat it multiple days a week, however, I omitted it today. We had:

- Honey dew
- Green grapes
- Sugar snap peas
- Chicken salad on veggie wraps
- Avocado hummus with tortilla chips


And for dessert, Shamrock Shakes! Oh, goodness. These were spectacular. The whole family slurped up these peppermint and vanilla ice cream treats so fast. Great end to our first St. Patrick's Day celebration!






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