St. Patrick’s Day Activities Your Kids are Sure to Love

There are so many holiday-themed activities out there for kids that it can get a little overwhelming. Sometimes when I collect links I come back with tons of them, and I’m not sure that’s super helpful. I’d love to know if you prefer large or small activity roundups, if you’d like more STEM or more educational activities and for what age levels. You are why I’m here!

In the meantime, here’s a little collection of fun activities you might want to do at home or with a small group of kids for St. Patrick’s Day. Enjoy!

Building a leprechaun trap is a fun crafty activity that is easy to turn into a STEM activity by presenting kids with a collection of items with which to make a trap. You can do it with LEGOs, recycled materials, an old shoebox, really whatever you have on hand. Homeschool Preschool has a huge collection of ideas to get your brain going. She has printables, book lists and other great St. Patrick’s Day stuff, too.

Instead of a trap, you might want to build a graham cracker leprechaun house instead. It’s just like a gingerbread house, just with green icing. Adventures of Mel has a tutorial with all the details.

Another fun STEM idea comes from Joy in the Works, who made a homemade catapault game where Lucky Charms are launched into little pots. This one looks like a lot of fun!

And what’s St. Patrick’s Day without some rainbows? The Pinterested Parent has some great ideas for making your own rainbows and then painting them (sort of like you might draw a shadow). So clever!

If you have older kids, you’ll want to try this technique for making perfect rainbow tie-dye from Crafty Chica. It looks amazing and so much fun.

Do you do any special activities for St. Patrick’s Day? I’d love to hear about them!

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Leprechaun Trap Ideas for St. Patrick's Day

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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Have you read?

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