There’s More to Arts & Crafts Than Meets the Eye!
The “A” in STEAM stands for “Art,” and every St. Patrick’s Day is a great opportunity for some fun arts and crafts to share with your preschoolers. Your home can quickly turn into an art studio with the right supplies and a young mind full of imagination and creativity.
What Makes St. Patrick’s Day So Special?
St. Patrick’s Day is a cultural holiday celebrated annually on March 17th in honor of the patron saint of Ireland. Although it has its roots on the Emerald Isle, the date has become globally celebrated.
Not only because the Irish population has emigrated to many different countries (especially the US, Canada, Australia and the UK) and took this tradition with, but also because some of its main symbols cause fascination and grow on everyone’s imagination – like the Leprechauns, the pot of gold and the rainbows.
Did you know though that these arts and crafts have a purpose beyond being fun? Here are several real and fantastic benefits your early learner can get from creating collages, cards and more this St. Patrick’s Day.
Fine Motor Skill Development
Whether you’re drawing a straight line, gluing on shamrocks or cutting with scissors, arts and crafts can help your child develop their fine motor skills. This doesn’t just help your learner get used to things like using pencils and pens, but the hand-eye coordination can also help build the dexterity they need to succeed in physical areas, like sports!
Improved Decision-Making
What colors does your child want to work with? Which tools do they need to use: buttons, stickers or glitter? If they want to make construction paper look like a lucky four-leaf clover, how will they accomplish that?
Artistic choices and challenges can encourage your child to make small, but impactful decisions that create real, tangible results. This can help build your child’s confidence in their own decision-making as well as their own critical thinking skills.
Practicing Patience
You can’t rush paint drying and you can’t cut too quickly if you want to get your leprechaun’s hat to turn out just right.
This helps kids understand the value of patience and waiting. If they rush something and it doesn’t turn out the way they wanted, they’ll also learn from the experience. Next time, they’ll remember that glue has to finish drying before they can touch the paper if they don’t want their hands to get sticky!
Memory Through Hands-On Learning
Creating St. Patrick’s Day arts and crafts also builds memory. Hands-on learning with colors and shapes makes more sense to kids than asking them to just remember names for things.
In other words, if you draw a heart you’re more likely to remember what shape a “heart” is, and if you have to ask for a green crayon you’re more likely to remember which color that is later on.
Self-Expression & Self Esteem
Arts and crafts give your child a way to express their own thoughts and ideas through pictures. There’s a real sense of achievement that kids get from completing their arts and crafts.
They get the opportunity to make something, by themselves, that they’re proud of sharing. This gives your child the chance to be creative and try new things while boosting their self-esteem.
Better Socialization Skills & Bonding
The best arts and crafts aren’t done alone—they’re done with family or friends! Getting to interact with other kids who are trying the same arts and crafts (and maybe even sharing them with one another) gives them an opportunity to make friends through a shared experience.
When parents are involved, it can help strengthen that parent-child bond, too!
How Preschoolers Benefit from St. Patrick’s Day Arts?
It’s helpful to initiate your child and let them interact with common celebrations: this is an opportunity to create your own family traditions, as well as help them connect with cultural folklore.
Since children will be impacted by these popular celebrations that will be all over their surroundings, why not take the chance to mix and match both learning and creative skills?
This is what is expected with an educational methodology such as STEAM. Through art, children will have a valve to express themselves and get their hands on creating something inspired by this celebration they’ve learned about.
Now let’s see how you can turn St. Patrick’s Day into something more than a simple celebration!
(x) St. Patrick’s Day Art Activities For Preschoolers
Here’s how you can make use of some of St. Patrick’s Day’s most famous symbols and turn them into educational works of art.
You can do these at home with your Little One while enjoying some precious quality time with your family.
Handprint Four Leaf Clover
When choosing to create this craft, your child will be developing motor skills and also the ability to work in a group – since the child will likely need to follow instructions to place the four leaf clover.
You’ll need non-toxic green paint, construction paper or cardstock and a marker.
Simply arrange four handprint shapes together in a clover shape, with the fingers pointing outward and the palms meeting in the center. You can add a small stem and add it to resemble even more with the Lucky Four Leaf Clover!
Leprechaun Hats With Craft Sticks
This is a little homage to Leprechauns, mythical creatures that grant wishes to those who are able to find them and their pot of gold.
To recreate the Leprechauns’ hats, you’ll need everyday materials that you probably already have at home: craft sticks, a little more non-toxic green paint, and small black and yellow stripes of paper!
Fruit Loop Rainbow
Now this one is a truly delicious option: rebrand what your morning cereal means to your family! You can actually recreate a rainbow – which represents hope and good fortune for the Irish – using Fruit Loops!
Simply draw the shape of rainbow lines in a piece of paper. Put a bunch of Fruit Loops on a bowl where you can identify 6 different colors. Place the pieces of cereal separately in each line according to their color. By the end of it, you’ll get a delicious Fruit Loop Rainbow!
When engaging with this activity, children improve their motor skills and their ability to differentiate different colors. By the end of it, indulge yourself with a delicious bowl of cereal!
Ready to Start Some Arts and Crafts this St. Patrick’s Day?
At Amazing Explorers Academy, we value the early learning of every child through STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. That’s why we’ve found plenty of “amazing” arts and crafts activities you can enjoy with your child this St. Patrick’s Day! Find one that you love at our Pinterest board here.
