Inside: Discover fun St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids, from sensory bins and crafts to creative learning and hands-on play!
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Make St. Patrick’s Day Magical for Your Kids
Looking for fun and creative St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids that sparks imagination and keeps them engaged? From sensory bins, and craft baskets to a DIY felt board story, this guide has everything you need to create a magical, screen-free St. Patrick’s Day!
Benefits of Screen-Free Play for Kids
Embracing screen-free learning through play, especially sensory play, is one of the most effective ways to support a child’s development. Through hands-on sensory activities, kids enhance fine motor skills, creativity, and cognitive growth. Simple tasks like sorting colors, painting, and working with playdough help improve focus and problem-solving abilities.
Plus, engaging in craft projects boosts self-expression and confidence. These activities not only support early learning milestones but also create meaningful family bonding moments. Encouraging screen-free, creative play is key to fostering imagination and independence in little ones.
Ready to dive into some fun and educational St. Patrick’s Day activities that will keep your little ones entertained and learning? Let’s get started!
You can read our journey to a screen-free lifestyle here: Screen-Free Parenting: How Ditching Technology Transformed Our Kids
1. St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin Ideas
A sensory bin is a container filled with materials like rice, beans, or water beads that allow kids to explore textures, colors, and shapes through touch and play. This hands-on activity boosts fine motor skills, cognitive development, and creativity while encouraging independent play. Sensory bins are a great screen-free learning tool that helps children engage their senses and improve focus.
Take a look at these St. Patrick’s Day themed sensory bins where learning through play is so much fun!
These 3 sensory bins actively engage kids with a gold coin and shamrock hunt, counting pom poms after rolling the big foam green dice, and sorting the colors of the rainbow in cute little bowls! My son loves scooping the popcorn kernels and corn into the little bowls over and over again and dumping them into each other. These activities can keep your child engaged for a solid hour or more!
Check out this sensory table on Amazon here (I stained ours to match the esthetic in our playroom)
2. Engaging Morning Basket Activities
A morning basket, rooted in the Charlotte Mason philosophy, is a gentle and intentional way to start the day with meaningful, screen-free learning. It typically includes living books, hands-on activities, and creative projects that nurture curiosity and imagination. This approach allows children to explore subjects like art, nature, and character development in a relaxed and engaging way, while promoting family connection and a love for learning. Perfect for homeschooling or enriching your child’s daily routine!
Let’s take a look inside our St. Patrick’s Day themed morning basket!
Check out my article 5 Screen-Free Activities for more morning basket ideas!
St. Patrick’s Day Book
After a visit to our local thrift book store, I was able to find this cute St. Patrick’s day Leprechaun Tales book that has several classic tales included inside. Typically, I would visit our local library after doing a bit of research on living books that may be available, but unfortunately they were all out of stock! I was able to find a few books on Amazon that would be a perfect addition to our holiday books collection for next year. The frugal side of me is waiting to see if they come on sale this week before I take the plunge.
Here are a few St. Patrick’s Day book recommendations:
- The Leprechaun’s Gold, by Pamela Duncan Edwards- An Irish folktale that teaches kindness and generosity, with vibrant illustrations.
- St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning, by Eve Bunting- Heartwarming story about a young Irish boy who is determined to join the village’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.
- Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, by Tomie dePaola- This picture book tells the story of Saint Patrick’s life and the legends surrounding him in a way that captivates young readers.
Check out My Favorite Living Books here!
Coloring Pages
I found a bunch of adorable FREE coloring pages online and printed a few of them out. I have 2-3 in our morning basket for him to color with some chunky crayons, but I also have some in our craft basket in a protective sleeve that we can use dry erase markers on and also explore a bit with play-doh!
Here are the links to the free coloring pages I found:
Rainbow Coloring Pages – 50 FREE Printable Pages | Printabulls
Rainbow Coloring Pages – 50 FREE Printable Pages | Printabulls
30 Leprechaun Coloring Pages: 100% Free To Download Printables
St. Patrick’s Day Activities
Rainbow Building Blocks
I love these rainbow building blocks! This is a great set to learn colors through play. It also came with wooden people figures, flat rainbow block pieces that are round and then ones that are rectangular. Each week we focus on two different colors at a time, I often have the two colors on our learning shelf laid out for my toddler to play with, he constantly asks if I can bring out the whole set. Highly recommend you check this one out on Amazon here.
Rainbow Stacking Rings
These stacking rings help develop fine motor skills as little hands grasp, stack, and balance the rings. The bright colors enhance visual recognition and color sorting skills, while the different sizes promote spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination. Additionally, stacking the rings in the correct order supports problem-solving abilities and early math concepts, such as size differentiation and sequencing. Plus, they encourage imaginative play and creative exploration. You can view it here on Amazon.
- St. Patrick’s Day book recommendations
- Themed coloring pages
- Matching and sorting games
Foam Green Dice
I picked these fun dice up at our local dollar tree believe it or not! These will come in handy as we teach our little ones to count, they can roll the big dice and use fun counters (such as colorful dinosaurs, popsicle sticks, pom poms, buttons, etc.) to create a fun little game.
Green Peg Sorter
I found this at our local children’s thrift store, it’s actually a part of the Lovevery sets that you can sign up for. I have seen some incredible reviews for these sets, but after viewing the price I decided we would hold off and just see what pieces I could find at our local thrift store. Maybe one day I can become an affiliate for them and get a discount.
Have you tried the Lovevery sets? If you have the subscription, do you think it’s worth it? Let me know in the comments below!
3. Creative Craft Basket for Kids
I am OBSESSED with Dollar Tree, which is where the majority of these supplies were purchased. In this craft basket you will find a hodge podge of play-doh, paints, paint brushes, construction paper, stick glue and kids scissors. I also have a cute little crafting apron for my little one to wear so he doesn’t get to incredibly messy, and just because I think it’s so cute.
I found this protector sheet at the Dollar Tree as well. My goodness do we use the heck out of this thing! I love printing off coloring pages and using dry erase markers for my toddler to color on it with, we can easily wipe it all away and use these printable sheets over and over again.
We also use these to play with play-doh! When learning our letters and numbers, we like to use free printables of the letters and numbers and then play-doh to build them.
I did see where you can find protectors like these in bulk on Amazon here at a decent price, the Dollar Tree is hit or miss with them sometimes.
4. Interactive DIY Felt Board Story
I purchased a laminating machine at Walmart, and it was one of the best decisions I have made in the past year! I literally use it for everything. My favorite thing to do is print out some coloring pages that coincide with a children’s story or theme I want to engage my toddler with color them with my preteen and then laminate them! Once laminated, we cut out the individual pieces for the story and put Velcro stickers on the back so they will hang on our felt board.
I couldn’t find the model of the laminator I use on Amazon, but here is a similar one at around the same price that I picked it up for at Walmart. You will also need the laminating sheets, which are actually cheaper on Amazon than at Walmart, check them out here!
Of course you can find felt stories already made, but I like to get a little crafty here and there, it’s a bonding experience for myself and my older son too sometimes. I also like that using the laminator to create our own is more cost effective!
5. Color Sorting Magnet Activity
The last fun St. Patrick’s Day activity I plan to do with my toddler is this magnetic color sorting set. Just like the rainbow building blocks, I use these each week as we introduce two colors at a time and put these up on our activity wall in our kids playroom. This is a great way to develop kids fine motor skills! You can check these out here on Amazon.
A Memorable and Educational St. Patrick’s Day
And there you have it! I can’t wait to wake up on St. Patrick’s Day and surprise my toddler with these fun, screen-free activities. With sensory bins and a themed morning basket already part of our daily routine, customizing them for the holiday makes the day even more exciting!
Looking for more creative, hands-on learning ideas? Check out My Toddler’s Daily Routine for inspiration.
What are your favorite St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids? Do you whip up festive breakfasts or fun snacks? Share in the comments below!
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