Shamrocks are such an iconic part of St. Patrick’s day, and I wanted to introduce my kids to shamrocks ahead of the holiday. We had done a fizzy paint activity for Valentine’s that they both enjoyed, so as one of our St. Patrick’s Day activities, I decided to bring the fizzy paint back with a St. Patrick’s Day twist! That is how our magic fizzing shamrocks activity was born!
Note: You can find this and other St. Patrick’s activities on my St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids page.
I prepared the following materials for this activity:
- Painting paper cut into a shamrock shape
- Green fizzy paint (see my Valentine’s heart fizzy painting post for info on how to make fizzy paint)
- A paint brush
- A small cup of vinegar
- A plastic pipette
Initially, I just presented the shamrock form on a tray and we talked about its significance for St. Patrick’s Day as well as its shape and color. At that point, I let the kids have the paint to begin turning their shamrocks green.
After they had completely filled in their shamrocks, I handed them the cups of vinegar with the pipette. QBoy decided to smell his vinegar and declared that it smelled bad. 🙂
The kids then began adding vinegar to their shamrocks. There was a great bubbling effect as the vinegar came into contact with the baking soda in the paint.
These three pictures show the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar over the span of several seconds.
Lots of fun for St. Patrick’s Day! What will you and your kids be doing to celebrate?
More St. Patrick’s Day ideas for kids
More St. Patrick’s Day posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Books about St. Patrick’s Day
- Magic leprechaun rocks
- St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin
- Build a 3D rainbow
- Rainbow do-a-dot printable
- St. Patrick’s Day Printables Pack
- St. Patrick’s Day do-a-dot printables
- St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages
For more St. Patrick’s activity ideas, check out my St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Kids page and my St. Patrick’s Day Pinterest board.
Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board St. Patrick’s Day on Pinterest.
Mary Catherine says
February 26, 2013 at 6:08 amOh, this looks like so much fun! I love the mix of art and science/discovery! Pinning now so I can try it later. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Deb @ Living Montessori Now says
February 26, 2013 at 9:16 pmWhat a fun idea! I pinned your post to my Kids’ St. Patrick’s Day Activities Board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/kids-st-patrick-s-day-activities/
Jessica @ Play Trains! says
February 26, 2013 at 10:01 pmFun! I’m pinning this to my St. Patrick’s Day board…my son would really enjoy this!
Angela @ Teaching Mama says
February 27, 2013 at 12:41 pmLove this activity! I’ll be doing this with my boys soon!! Thanks for the idea.
Annette @ InAllYouDo says
March 1, 2013 at 10:51 pmVisiting you from TGIF at Living Life Intentionally. I love this idea!!! Looks like a lot of fun! I can’t wait to try it for St. Patrick’s Day!!! I also pinned it to my Holidays: St. Patty’s Day board on Pinterest.
Sugar Aunts says
March 2, 2013 at 5:38 pmWhat a fun idea! I can see my kids going bonkers for this 🙂 I would love to invite you to link up at our Share It Saturday linky party. We have lots of creative ideas submitted each week and you would fit right in!
Colleen at Sugar Aunts
Jackie Higgins says
March 2, 2013 at 6:27 pmGreat craft and I love the addition of the “fizz”. My boys would find that entertaining!
Kelly S says
March 2, 2013 at 7:21 pmJust came across your site and I love it!! Please tell me where you got all those art trays from … I searched your site and the web but couldn’t find the same size. Thanks!!
Katie says
March 2, 2013 at 8:00 pmI got them at Lakeshore Learning. Here’s a link to the product webpage if you want more info: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?productItemID=1%2C689%2C949%2C371%2C898%2C055&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=1362283210775
Julie says
March 3, 2013 at 12:18 pmWe’ve used vinegar and baking soda for volcanoes, but you have come up with some awesome creative uses for it. I love the idea of using it as paint.
Debs says
March 3, 2013 at 10:03 pmThis looks like a really fun hands-on activity! I’m featuring it this week on Learn with Play at home. Thanks for linking it to Tuesday Tots. Have a great day 🙂
Katie says
March 4, 2013 at 6:47 amThanks so much! Glad you like our activity.
chelle says
March 4, 2013 at 7:44 pmVery Neat!
Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Heather {Upside Down Homeschooling} says
March 5, 2013 at 4:45 pmIt looks like your kids had so much fun with this craft!
Thanks for linking up to the Hearts for Home Blog Hop! Blessings!!
Jackie Higgins says
March 6, 2013 at 12:05 pmHi! I’m co-hosting Mom’s library this week and I featured your magic fizzing shamrocks.
Thanks!
Sugar Aunts says
March 8, 2013 at 3:07 pmWe love this project so much, that we are featuring your post tomorrow on Share It Saturday. Stop by and visit if you like. We will also be sharing with our FB and Twitter followers and pinning to our Share It Saturday Group Pinterest board.
We hope to see your posts back at Share It Saturday again, we love your ideas 🙂
Colleen at Sugar Aunts
Katie says
March 8, 2013 at 3:33 pmThanks! I’m following you on Pinterest and I’ve liked you on Facebook! I would appreciate it if you could follow me back!
Carrie says
March 8, 2013 at 4:09 pmThese are really neat! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
Allison says
March 8, 2013 at 9:48 pmThis looks like so much fun!
Valerie says
March 9, 2013 at 6:03 amLOVE this. MUST “Steal” this idea from you. With proper credit of course. 🙂
Melanie says
March 9, 2013 at 2:56 pmLove this project! How does it look when it’s dry? Does the paint flake off?
Katie says
March 9, 2013 at 3:30 pmFor us the activity was about process rather than product, so we didn’t save it once we were done.
Ticia says
March 9, 2013 at 6:17 pmFor all of the fizzy experiments we’ve done, I don’t think we’ve ever done one with painting. I might have to remedy that……
Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday!
Christine says
March 9, 2013 at 11:13 pmI love your fizzing shamrocks. I’ve featured your post today on my blog. Thank you for sharing it on the weekly kids co-op!
Katie says
March 10, 2013 at 2:24 pmThanks so much for featuring my post!
Rebecca from Here Come the Girls says
March 10, 2013 at 1:29 amWhat a brilliant activity – I love it!
A great selection – we love the rainbow fish so definitely checking that out.
Thanks for sharing on The Sunday Showcase. I’ve pinned to our board.
Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas says
March 10, 2013 at 5:53 pmlove how you combined some art with some fun science in this activity. I have featured you on this week’s Sunday Showcase.
Katie says
March 10, 2013 at 10:13 pmThanks so much for featuring our magic fizzing shamrocks!
Linda says
March 14, 2014 at 6:25 pmWhat do you mean painting paper? Is that the same as finger paint paper?
Katie says
March 14, 2014 at 9:38 pmI believe we did use finger paint paper, but really I just mean any paper thick enough for paint (i.e., that you can paint on without putting holes in it).