Lesson 32 - Rainbows for St. Patrick's Day

In our lesson today we learned about St. Patrick’s Day. Its origin, it’s customs, and all the fun that goes along with the celebration. St. Patrick’s day is a holiday which originated in Ireland. It is celebrated on March 14, and it is named after Ireland’s patron saint Patrick.

The holiday also celebrates the culture of Ireland and the Irish people. On this day, people have large celebrations with parades, festivals and lots of good food and drink. Also, wearing anything color green is a large part of the holiday. Over the years, the holiday has been celebrated all over Europe and North America.

To keep true to the customs of the holiday, we chose to work on a rainbow and pot of gold project.

We began by using legal sized paper. Each child made a hand print in rainbow colors. We used purple, blue, green yellow, orange and red. They stamped their hand print multiple times in each of the rainbow colors, all leading to the pot of gold at the end of their rainbow. The children were happy to paint  their hands, it was the most fun part of this project. If you have to get messy, it’s best to do it with rainbow paint.

After the children’s hands were cleaned, they glued the pot at the end of their rainbow, and stamped gold “coins” inside and around the pot by using a round sponge stamp  dipped in yellow paint. The finishing touch was to sprinkle the pot and the gold coins with gold dust (we used gold glitter). Finally, each child’s name was printed on the paper, and they were able to take home their personal rainbow complete with a pot of gold at the end. Happy St. Patrick’s day!