by Wendy Brock

Created on: February 18, 2008   Last Updated: October 29, 2010

St. Patrick's Day 2008 is on a Monday this year. Liven up your regular Monday routine with crafts and activities for kids that will spark creativity and ignite enthusiasm. The crafts section is written with adult supervision in mind. The activities section is great for three or more kids.

CRAFTS
There are so many crafts that your kids can make on St. Patrick's Day. A great smelling craft for young ones is the Irish Spring Leprechaun. Buy a bar of Irish Spring soap and cut off one end so it is even and can stand on its own. Using green colored sticky back felt, cut out a little vest and shorts shape. Stick onto the soap and press firmly to activate the glue. Cut out little black boot and hat shapes and stick to the bottom and top of the hat. Finish the leprechaun with Google eyes, yellow buckles on the boots, and an orange beard. Use the green felt for arms.

"Shammytines" are St. Patrick's Day's version of the valentine. Draw shamrocks with a personal note, color, and cut out to give to someone. Use green construction paper for a simple shamrock or decorate card stock paper with leprechauns and shamrocks for a fancy effect.

A fingerprint shamrock is a fun way to creatively make a shamrock. Dip the index finger in green finger paint and stamp the index finger onto the paper three times. One print should point to the left, the other to the top of the page, and the last one to the right. The bottom of the fingerprints should connect to the each other. Draw a stem pointing down with a green crayon.

Rainbow jell-o is fun and yummy. This is a little time-consuming, but the look on kid's faces when they dip into this fabulous treat is well worth it. You'll need some tall clear containers, whipped topping, and different colors of jell-o: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Make the jell-o according to box directions, and pour a small layer in each container. Chill for 20 minutes then spoon a small layer of whipped topping on top. Repeat for each color. The whipped topping helps the layers from running together.

ACTIVITIES
These activities and games are great for groups of kids in the classroom or at a party. Draw a leprechaun on a poster board, and play "Pin the hat on the leprechaun." Add some humor to your leprechaun by making him bald with orange hair on the side. Cut a hat out of black construction paper and add a yellow buckle. Cut a square out of yellow construction paper and fold in half. Cut a square out of the center then open it. Tape the "buckle"

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