If you’re looking for playful, colorful, hands-on St. Patrick’s Day inspiration, you’re going to love this roundup.
Today I’m featuring Sarah Elizabeth’s 15 St. Patrick’s Day Kids Activity Ideas — a collection of rainbow crafts, sensory play setups, shamrock art, and themed learning activities that are perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.
These ideas pair beautifully with our March Play-Based Learning Guide and St. Patrick’s Day content cluster here on GoodnightFox.
Let’s walk through each one.
Free Leprechaun Trap
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1. Rainbow Coloring Page + Pot of Gold Craft
A simple but beautiful rainbow coloring activity. Use rainbow colored markers on a sheet of aluminum foil and spray with water. Press the coloring sheet down over the markers to transfer the color onto the sheet of paper. The result — a beautiful pastel rainbow!
Learning focus:
Color recognition
Fine motor control
Holiday vocabulary
Pairs perfectly with:
2. Rainbow Potion Sensory Bin
A water-based sensory tray with gold coins and rainbow coloring that feels magical. Make baking soda and vinegar come to life in this pot of gold sensory play setup. Use gold coins and glitter to make your pot of gold shine. Squeeze bottles with vinegar help develop fine motor skills while the fizzing fun brings play to life.
Skills supported:
Scooping and pouring
Color mixing
Cause and effect
3. Rainbow Wall Streamer Craft
A large-scale rainbow installation made from streamers and paper clouds. This activity is a great gross motor skill developer and it’s a beautiful craft to have hanging on the wall. Cut out a large white cloud from construction paper and tape it to the wall. Using rainbow colored masking tape, tape lines coming down from the rainbow. Tape them down with the sticky side up so that your little ones can tape wool balls or pom poms to each bow of the rainbow. Isn’t this just the perfect color matching activity for kids?!
Why it’s great:
Gross motor movement
Visual impact
Collaborative play
4. Rainbow Sorting Sensory Bin
Take your St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin to the next level with this super creative idea! Paint rainbow colored chickpeas with acrylic paint and let dry. Pour them in rainbow order into a large play tray. Add mini cauldrons, tongs, and some rainbow accessories and you have the perfect color sorting tray. This activity is so great for fine motor skills, color recognition, and a fun play all day kind of activity.
Learning focus:
Early math
Categorization
Fine motor development
5. Shamrock Handprint Art
Build the most beautiful rainbow with your little one’s hand prints. I love Sarah’s adorable creation here complete with a black paper cut out cauldron and clouds made out of cotton balls. This is the perfect craft you’ll want to hand on the wall when you’re done. Add a tray of gold coins and you’re ready for a fun rainbow adventure.
Skills:
Sensory tolerance
Shape recognition
Creative expression
6. Rainbow Cotton Ball Painting
Use rainbow drippers and cotton balls to create this amazing rainbow effect! Full each glass or jar with water and food coloring for each color of the rainbow. Unleash your little ones to suck up the liquid and squirt it out onto the cotton balls arranged in a rainbow pattern. They’ll absolutely love the drippers and you’ll get to enjoy a minute of peace watching them play!
Why we love it:
Process art
No “right” outcome
Easy setup
7. Fizzy Science Activity
Fill a tray with baking soda and glitter. Add two cups one green one yellow of vinegar plus food coloring. Pull out your rainbow drippers again and watch the magic. You’ll get to see the bubble and fizz while the glitter springs to life.
Skills:
STEM learning
Observation
Cause & effect
Extend this into:
🧪 Love Potions sensory play (Valentine crossover idea)
8. Leprechaun Book + Craft Invitation
We love pairing up books like How to Catch a Leprechaun with our sensory play and this craft is the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Draw a leprechaun face on a piece of paper and add a top hat made out of green, black, and yellow construction paper. Provide a tray of orange paint and a plastic fork and let your little ones enjoy building the cutest beard for their leprechaun. Top it off with some glitter and googly eyes and you have the perfect craft!
Pair with:
9. Shamrock Cutting Tray
A scissor skills activity using shamrock shapes. Grab the construction paper and a shamrock shape and you have this perfectly simple activity for creative play. Allow your little ones to dab glue or use a glue stick to stick the different shades of green to the shamrock.
Supports:
Pre-writing skills
Hand strength
Bilateral coordination
10. Shamrock Stamping Art
Using folder toilet paper rolls you can create this brilliantly simple craft. Simply fold an empty toilet paper roll into a heart shape and provide a tray of green paint. Let your little ones stamp away creating beautiful shamrock designs and lucky four leaf clovers!
Learning focus:
Pattern recognition
Shape awareness
Creative repetition
11. Green Play Dough Invitation
A St. Patrick’s themed play dough tray with coins and shamrocks. Complete with shamrock cookie cutters, rainbow charms and gold coins, your little ones will love stamping and pressing and making shapes in playdoh for hours (okay maybe minutes) on end!
Skills:
Fine motor strengthening
Imaginative play
Sensory exploration
Pairs beautifully with:
12. Pot of Gold Dot Counting Activity
Draw a simple pot of gold and rainbow lines to create this awesome dot art craft. With this activity sheet, little ones can practice color recognition as well as counting. Encourage them to count each dot and see how many fit on each color of the rainbow. This is a great hands-on play based learning activity for kids.
Learning focus:
Early math
One-to-one correspondence
Sorting skills
Extend with:
🍀 March math play trays
13. Rainbow Paper Towel Art
If you have little ones that love water play, this activity is a great low key way to make water play fun without all of the mess. Using marker on a paper towel, color the shape of a rainbow. Then provide a squirt bottle filled with water and let your little ones enjoy watching the colors combine and bleed together.
This pairs perfectly with:
14. Rainbow Squeegee Painting
Using cotton balls for clouds and globs of paint at one end, your little ones will love watching the effect as they pull the squeegee along the page. This one is fun to do over and over again because each time the pattern is different and unique.
Skills supported:
Sensory regulation
Scooping and pouring
Vocabulary building
You could combine this with:
15. Shamrock Marshmallow Stamping Prints
Create the most adorable little shamrocks using just marshmallows and paint! This craft is so unique and fun (and tasty if you let your little ones sneak a marshmallow). Dip marshmallows in green paint and stamp them onto plain white paper int the shape of a shamrock.
Why we love it:
Sustainable
Easy prep
Great for classrooms
Pairs beautifully with:
How This Fits Into Your March Play-Based Learning
These 15 ideas align perfectly with:
If you’re planning your St. Patrick’s Day week, you could easily turn these into:
Monday: Rainbow sensory play
Tuesday: Shamrock art
Wednesday: STEM rainbow experiment
Thursday: Leprechaun trap
Friday: Leprechaun pancakes
Shop the St. Patrick’s Day Theme (GoodnightFox Favorites)
If you’d like to extend the learning, here are a few GoodnightFox favorites that pair beautifully with these activities:
Final Thoughts
Sarah Elizabeth’s St. Patrick’s Day activity ideas are colorful, playful, and incredibly engaging for toddlers and preschoolers.
When paired with your March learning rhythm and seasonal sensory setups, they create a full week (or month!) of joyful, play-based learning.