St. Patrick's Day for Kids: Activities, Crafts, Songs and Fun Facts

Kids can have a blast on St. Patrick's Day! Keep them entertained with St. Patrick's Day songs, free St. Patrick's Day coloring pages, and craft activities. Satisfy their curiosity with fun St. Patrick's Day Trivia.

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Fun Facts about St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Kids: Crafts and More!

Songs about St. Patrick’s Day

Kids might ask why we celebrate St. Patrick. Learn about St. Patrick here and the holiday and brag that Americans were actually the first to organize St. Patrick’s Day parades!

Fun Facts about St. Patrick’s Day

Tell these fun facts to the kids as you participate in St. Patrick’s day activities.

• The first St. Patrick’s Day parades were in Boston (1737) and New York (1762).
• Seattle paints a green stripe on roads on St. Patrick’s Day.
• 19 U.S. Presidents have claimed Irish heritage.
• Every year, Chicago dyes the Chicago River bright green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
• At one time, there were more Irish living in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland!
• St. Patrick is credited with chasing all the snakes out of Ireland (but of course Ireland never had any snakes).
• Corned beef is completely an American invention but very popular with Irish-Americans!
• Leprechauns are the official shoemakers to the fairy kingdom, a very important job.

St. Patrick's Day Activities for Kids: Crafts and More

Have the kids hunt for the leprechaun’s gold! Cover a simple shoe-box with black felt and the lid with circles of gold foil, or have the kids make these a few days ahead of time. Hide the “pot of gold” somewhere in the house filled with small toys or tasty things to eat.

Make Irish flags with green, white and orange felt. The Irish flag has a green strip on the left, white in the middle, and orange on the right. Attach to popsicle sticks for the parade!

Make salt dough with the kids. Add a few drops of green food coloring and let them create St. Patrick’s day shapes. Make clovers by connecting the points of three hearts. Easy! Cut out the letters for Ireland with letter cookie cutters and let the dough dry (this can be sped up in the oven). Decorate and string to make a St. Patrick’s Day garland!

For Irish princesses or anyone else looking to celebrate, make these festive painted shirts for St. Patrick’s Day.

Kids will love getting involved in making lucky clover shoes which they can wear to school on St. Patrick’s Day and all during the spring. Let kids cover shoes in the first layer of cheerful green paint and you can paint the more delicate clovers.

St. Patrick’s Day Songs for Kids

To teach young children about counting and subtraction, cut out five shamrocks from green felt or poster board and add the numbers 1-5. Let the kids decorate the shamrocks. Sing this song:

Five green shamrocks growing outdoors
(Child's name) picked one, and that left four.
Four little shamrocks, green as they can be.
(Child's name) picked one and that left three.
Three little shamrocks playing peek-a-boo
(Child's name) picked one and that left two.
Two little shamrocks nodding in the sun,
(Child's name) picked one, and that left one.
One little shamrock for St. Patrick's Day fun.
(Child's name) picked it, and that left none.

This is a great song to get the kids up and dancing. Have them invent their own “irish jigs” with lots of foot taps. Don’t be afraid to be silly!

Sung to: "If You're Happy and You Know It"

If you're wearing green today, dance a jig,
If you're wearing green today, dance a jig,
If you're wearing green today,
Dance a jig, then smile and say,
"Have a very Happy St. Patrick's Day"