During the month of March, I’m ready to put away the winter art activities and focus on St. Patrick’s Day Shamrocks! Leprechauns, rainbows, and gold coins are sure to get children excited and eager to learn! Today we’ll use a non-traditional printing tool to make a shamrock and decorate our work with stickers, fluorescent paint, and more! Little fingers will get a workout as we hop, stick, and bounce about to make sham-ROCKING artwork!
Facts About Shamrocks
- Shamrocks are green.
- Shamrocks have three leaves.
- Shamrocks are a symbol of Ireland.
- The word Shamrock means “little clover”.
- Shamrocks are popular on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day.
Potato Masher Prints
I love to use familiar kitchen items in creative ways to make artwork!
Potato mashers are the perfect tools as they are easy to grip, fun to use, and readily available. They work well for an art at home project, or incorporated into a painting station in the classroom. They can be used solely as a process art activity or combined with a craft project.
Printmaking keeps children highly engaged as they see immediate results as cause and effect is on full display.
Action in Art
As an elementary art teacher, I’ve learned that getting students moving and interacting with the art-making process often keeps them on task and highly engaged.
Today we’ll explore unique and non-traditional art techniques as we stamp with a potato masher, peel and apply stickers to paper, and bounce with a ball to print coins. These repetitive movements will aid fine motor skill development and eye-hand coordination.
Replacing regular paintbrushes with these unique tools promotes creativity, self-discovery, and exploratory art.
Materials to Make Potato Masher Shamrock St. Patrick’s Day Craft
- Oval Potato Masher
- Black Construction Paper
- Green Crayola Fluorescent Tempera Paint
- Green Jumbo Yarn
- Stickers
- Scissors
- White Glue
- Gold Metallic Tempera Paint
- Small Toy Ball
Step-by-Step Directions for Shamrock Art Project for Kids
Stamp it!
Stick the open end of a potato masher into green paint and print in a circular motion to make the three leaves of a shamrock.
Let the paint dry, and cut a piece of green jumbo yarn for the stem. Glue the yarn into place with white glue.
Stick it!
Add colorful stickers to the background. I recommend small circular stickers often used to tag yard sale items.
Sticker Option: Add fun St. Patrick’s Day themed stickers to your work as well.
Bounce it!
Dip a small ball into gold paint and bounce about to make small gold coins.
Talk About Art
- Which painting technique did you enjoy most today? Why?
- How many gold coins can you find in your artwork?
- Identify all of the colors in your work.
- Name other things found in nature that are the color green.
- How are you going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
Over the years, I’ve created a few potato masher art activities for Fantastic Fun and Learning including Silly Spider Prints, Fruit Slice Prints, Kusama Inspired Pumpkins, Snowpeople, and Spring Flower Prints. What else could you make with a potato masher? Spring ideas that I’m looking forward to trying include Easter eggs and ladybugs.
Thanks for making art with me today! I would love to see your artwork! Please tag @fantasticfunandlearning and @youngschoolartwithmr.g on Instagram.
CONNECT WITH VIN GIANNETTO
Learn more about Vin here on his author bio page. Follow along with him on Facebook at Young School Art with Mr. Giannetto and on Instagram @youngschoolartwithmr.g for art project ideas.
MORE ART AND CRAFT PROJECT IDEAS FROM VIN
MORE ST. PATRICK’S DAY THEME FUN WITH PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This St. Patrick’s Day theme pack includes semi-editable lesson plans and hands-on activities for a week full of math, reading, & science learning activities to explore some fun St. Patrick’s Day topics. Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set:
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
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