St. Patrick's Day Craft for Your Preschooler & A Short Version of St. Patrick's Story

If you are like me, and you were wanting to do something with your little ones for St. Patrick's Day, but you didn't get around to planning anything yet, I've got the perfect craft for you!  It takes hardly any supplies, and they should be ones you have hanging around the house (literally hanging... like on a toilet paper holder!).
What you will need is:

• A toilet paper roll
• Glue dots, hot glue, or staples
• Glue or spray adhesive and glitter, or markers, or whatever you want to use to decorate

1.  Cut the toilet paper roll into slices. These can be as thin or thick as you want- I did about 3/4" each.       Just make sure you have at least 5.
2.  Squash 4 of the toilet paper roll slices in half.
3.  Push the top point in towards the middle on each, making a heart shape (you may want to put a dot of      glue in the center of the part you pushed down, to keep it heart-shaped better, and this may require your help).
4.  Cut the 5th slice down one side and put it under something heavy (like a book) while you keep working.

1. You should now have 4 hearts. Glue 2 of the hearts together.
2. Glue the third and fourth hearts together, making a clover shape.
3. Pull that piece of toilet paper roll from under the book (or wherever you had it) and glue it between 2 of the hearts, making a stem for your clover. Trim it to the desired length.

Now is the fun part. You can decorate your clover however you like. The easiest way would be to spray it with spray adhesive and sprinkle it with glitter. However, I couldn't find my spray adhesive (of course, after taking pictures, I found it in the garage.... strange place for it to be!)
So what I did was put glue around the edge of the clover (or you could put some glue on a paper plate and have your preschooler either rub the edge of the clover in the glue or paint the clover with the glue) and then sprinkle glitter over it.
And if you don't like glitter, markers or stickers work too!

And here is a short and condensed version of St. Patrick's life to share with your kids.
When St. Patrick was young, he was taken into slavery in Ireland (like Joseph in Egypt- if you want to draw comparisons with your kids).  Several years later, he had a dream that God was telling him to go to the coast, and when he did so he found a boat and was able to go back to his family in Britain.
He then had another dream that the people of Ireland were begging him to come back to them.  Because of the second dream, he began studying to become a priest, so he could go back to Ireland and share God's love with the Irish.  When he became a priest, he headed back to Ireland, where he told people about God, converted thousands, and helped build churches.
St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the trinity (of course I read this after I made the clover with 4 leaves, so if you'd like to bring in this aspect as you talk to your kids, you should make it with just 3 leaves).
Talking about St. Patrick can be a great way to bring up ideas like following God's promptings, sacrificing our own comfort in order to minister to others, and, of course, the trinity.

So, do you do anything fun at your house to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Do you wear green and pinch those that don't?  Or make green pancakes?

Printable Story of St. Patrick

You might also enjoy:

St. Paddy's Parfait

Check out our link parties here.