St. Patrick's Day Storytime

Top 'o the morning, to you!    St. Patrick's Day is a great opportunity for a fun storytime at home or at your organization.  Even if you're not Irish, anyone can feel as if they are from the Emerald Isle on March 17th!

To give your children some background information on Ireland and St. Patrick's Day, check our your local bookstore or library.  A few good books to look for are:

St Patricks Day by Mari C. Schuh

Ireland by Kay MelChisedech Olson

Look What Came From Ireland by Miles Harvey

Can I just say that I would love an Aran sweater?!  Anyway, these books do include some recipes, craft ideas and of course, lots of information.  The first title is best for toddlers and preschoolers; the middle title for Elementary. 

Now on to a couple of great read-a-loud story books!   Check out for these titles to share with your little ones:

The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever by Teddy Slater

The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing

Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk by Gerald McDermott

Last year I was looking around the internet for a few St. Patrick's Day craft ideas and couldn't find anything that caught my eye.  So, I headed off to Michael's (craft store).  I'm not really sure where this idea came from, but I was thinking rainbows, shamrocks, gold... and then saw the ribbon for 99 cents a roll.  They had nice rainbow colors.  Then there were these packages of foam shamrocks for only $4.99.  Hmmmm?    And the rainbow shamrock was born.

For each I used two foam shamrocks (paper would work fine) and five 12" pieces of ribbon in any colors the child wanted to use. 

Using GLUE DOTS (I totally love the ease and quickness of using glue dots!), we attached ribbons on one side of one shamrock.  and then using more glue dots, we stuck another shamrock to the back so that we were covering up the stuck ends of ribbon.  

I had a hole-punch handy so that we could attach a ribbon so that the shamrock could be hung up in the house.

And there you have it!  A very easy, and very pretty, rainbow shamrock!   By the way, the kids LOVED this craft!

If you're are looking for other craft ideas,  here are a few websites to check out:

Disney's Family Fun Crafts

http://familyfun.go.com/sitesearch/results/q=st.%2520patrick's%2520day/

Fun Family Crafts

http://funfamilycrafts.com/category/seasonal-holiday/holidays/st-patricks-day/

Family Corner crafts, projects, foods and more

http://www.familycorner.com/family/st_patricks_day.shtml