St. Patty’s Day, Sweet and Special

My girls have not known about St. Patrick’s Day living overseas as long as they can remember. Hopefully, it was introduced today in a fun and memorable way!
First, we watched a video of a pastor telling a little history of St. Patrick. I retold the main points, having read different versions of the story, so the girls might understand the story better. Then we looked at the map of Europe—where Ireland is compared to Portugal and England (where St. Patrick was supposedly from, although I’ve seen different opinions on that). Next we talked about the shamrock being the traditional symbol of Ireland, and how it may have been a tool that Patrick used to share about the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) with the 3 leaves. We went outside and found a few clover.
Back inside, we made Shamrock Smoothies from National Geographic Little Kids:
I made a few adjustments since we can’t buy limeade or lime yogurt here. I just used plain yogurt and added 1/2 cup lime juice and 1/2 cup sugar. We all enjoyed it, even with the spinach! I think this might be the next things to try for freezer pops this summer!
Then I explained there are some stories that go along with St. Patrick’s Day that are made up but fun to know about, specifically leprechauns and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This gave the girls a chance to search for chocolate coins (no gold ones here, just copies of the different Euro coins) to match a sheet I’d made with coin denominations on it—a variation of No Time For Flash Card’s “Gold Hunt”. She really did have fun with the search and match, despite the I’m-bored look!
 
While they were snacking on a couple chocolate coins, the girls looked for four leaf clovers on a page I got from Printables 4 Kids.

Then I gave the girls some pots of gold—a little dish of pineapple jello (there’s no lemon jello here) cut up in little squares in a bed of whipped cream. That idea came from Family Fun as well as the homemade stamp we used to make clovers. They recommended a heart cookie cutter, but I cut a heart into a potato with a knife instead.  Shamrocks, pots of gold, a leprechaun, and 5 year old copywork:

Something I read: “May the Good Lord always hold you in the palm of His hand, and may the blessings He sends you be more plentiful than all the shamrocks in Ireland.”

I’m sharing this at Works for Me Wednesday, back at We Are That Family and