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Growing up, St. Patrick’s day was not a particularly big deal for me or my family. Of course we wore green so we wouldn’t get pinched. But that was about the extent of our celebrations, as far as I can recall. But I’ve been inspired by so many wonderful St. Patrick’s activities I’ve seen online to do a bit more with the holiday with my own kids. And I knew this magic leprechaun rocks activity would be huge hit with both of my kids.
You might be asking: What are magic leprechaun rocks? Well, they are magic rocks that disappear in a burst of bubbles when “washed,” leaving behind some leprechaun gold.
Note: Find more St. Patrick’s fun on my St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids page.
One day I came upon a post about “dissolving rocks” at Reading Confetti. That post provided the inspiration for my magic leprechaun rocks!
Preparing the magic leprechaun rocks
I had to prepare the magic leprechaun rocks a day in advance. I mixed approximately 1 cup of baking soda with 1/4 cup of water that had been dyed green with our liquid watercolors. Then I molded the dough into balls, sticking a gold coin in the middle as I went.
The dough should be moldable but not too wet. The first time I made the rocks, my dough was too wet. I laid them to dry but five minutes later they had melted into puddles. I put them back in the bowl, added more baking soda, and re-formed the rocks.
This time the rocks held their shape, and I let them dry overnight. By morning, they had turned into hard, green, magic leprechaun rocks.
Enjoying magic leprechaun rocks with kids
The day we did the activity, I hid the rocks in our backyard while the kids were napping.
When the kids woke up, I told them that leprechauns had come and left them some surprises in our backyard. The kids couldn’t get their shoes on fast enough to go searching for their surprises! QBoy quickly located the first magic leprechaun rock.
I told him, “That looks dirty, we should clean it.” And I directed him to dump it into a bowl I had filled with vinegar. When he dropped it in, more fun ensued as the rock fizzed and bubbled up, much to the kids’ delight!
After seeing the first magic rock, the kids eagerly gathered up the rest of the rocks hidden around our yard and added them to the bowl to be “washed.”
After a bit, the kids noticed the first piece of leprechaun gold appear in the bowl.
Of course, they had to scoop them up.
I brought out a container for the kids to collect their leprechaun gold.
And the kids had all sorts of fun playing with their new leprechaun gold. 🙂
More St. Patrick’s Day ideas for kids
More St. Patrick’s Day posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Books about St. Patrick’s Day
- St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin
- Build a 3D rainbow
- Rainbow do-a-dot printable
- Magic fizzing shamrocks
- 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.
What a wonderful imagination you have!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
This is a Fabulous idea! I can’t wait to try it…
I really appreciate your wonderful blog and the ideas you post!
By posting this activity early (2 weeks or so) you’ve given time so that my toddler daughter and I can make these to give away to her daycare class.
Love your blog and I love to use your activities with my daughter as time permits. Thanks for making a working mom happy!
I’m so glad you found an activity you like in time to prepare it for your daughter’s daycare. I hope they enjoy! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. 🙂
What a fun project! I definitely want to do this with my boys once the snow melts…in July. 😉 Thanks for sharing!
Uugh, sorry you have to wait until July for the snow to melt! 🙂 By July we are usually roasting around these parts!
OMG this is the COOLEST thing ever! I bet the kids had a blast with this I mean really what kid wouldn’t! Thank you so much for sharing on We Made That! I really need to make some magic rocks for my girls!
Thanks so much! I hope your girls enjoy it as much as my kids did!
Hah! I bet the kids loved the surprise after dropping the baking soda into the vinegar. Fun! Good way to include activity, too.
This is a super activity! I am SO trying this out 🙂 I can just imagine the look on their faces when they found the gold coins! 🙂
-Reshama
Oh my, this is an amazing project, how fun!! I will have to make these for sure!! 🙂
Super cute and fun too! Thanks for linking at Family Fun Friday – Monica
http://happyandblessedhome.com
Very fun! Just found your blog on the Saturday link-up at I Can Teach My Child. You have great ideas! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
This is such a WONDERFUL idea! We added you to our Leprechaun Magic post!
Have a whimsical day!
Amy and Michaela
Thanks so much for including my magic leprechaun rocks on your Leprechaun Magic post. You’ve got a really great round up of magical St. Patrick’s ideas!
love this!!!! what a great idea 😀
Thanks so much! We really enjoyed this activity. 🙂
This is SUPER!!
Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Thanks to you for hosting Sharing Saturday to give us all a chance to show off our ideas. 🙂
That is totally awesome!!
Popping in from preschool corner.
Those are very cool. My kids love hunting for things and this will be so fun for them. Pinning!
How fun! I am sure the kids had great time. Seems making the ball is a little tricky.
I came from Mom’s library. Thanks for linking up. I shared in twitter and pinterest. Come visit igamemom.com wednesday (afternoon) to see your article featured as part of Mom’s Library round up. I just start co-hosting Mom’s Library with True Aim. thanks again for a wonderful post.
Thanks so much, and I look forward to seeing you at Moms’s Library!
So original & tons of FUN! Thanks for sharing at Family Fun Friday!
Monica
Glad you liked our magic leprechaun rocks! Thanks so much for featuring them!
How fun! We love magic rocks. Great idea to hide a gold coin in them. 🙂
This would be so much fun! Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday.
Oh, how fun!! I love it! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
This is so much fun!!!
What a fun idea! I may have to make those up quickly today, and hide them tomorrow for the kids 🙂
a definite must do this weekend with my preschooler and some of our visiting 3 year old cousins! they’ll be sooooo excited!
Ooh, I’m sure they’ll love it! Let me know how it goes!
Love this idea!!! Can’t wait to try it. 😉
I bet your kids will go crazy for it!
What a great idea!!! My son is going to LOVE this!!!!! He is enjoying your printables, too! Thanks for the great blog!
My magic leprechaun rocks have been really popular. I bet your son will love them! And I’m glad he has been enjoying my printables too!
I saw this activity the night before our preschool Saint Patrick’s Day celebration and had to do it!!! I baked the rocks at 150 for 1 hour and they were hard and ready to go. I CAN’T WAIT for my class to engage in this activity!! Thanks for sharing!!!!
Oh how fun, I’m sure your kids will love it!!
This is so fun! About how many rocks does one batch make?
It would depend on how big you make the rocks, but I seem to recall that our batch made quite a few.
What an absolutely awesome idea! Going to have to pin this one 😀
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
This is fantastic and I’ll definitely be doing this with my little ones! It got me thinking of using this idea for Easter. Could you put Easter eggs wrapped in foil or would the baking soda and vinegar dissolve the wrapper? Anyone have suggestions what Easter surprise you could hide?
I have been thinking of doing something similar for Easter as well. I guess we’ll have to experiment to see what might work!
How awesome for the kiddos! You are a genius!
Thank you for this, my kids had a BLAST today finding these outside, what a cool idea. they came up with so many different ideas on how they got there, great fun!
Aww, thanks so much for sharing with me how much they enjoyed it!
Hi Katie,
I just made them now before going to bed. We are celebrating tomorrow as some kids were absent on Tuesday and I had a doctor appointment. I am sure the kiddos will love this activity! Thank you so much for making my lesson plans be so much fun.
Faye
This is awesome!! I’m going to make these for my children’s kindergarten classes! Thank you for sharing this!
I’m so pumped about making these for My Kinder class and the other K classes for our fun St. Patricks day activities!!!
I hope they love them!
Sounds wonderful! But won’t the food coloring stain badly and be hard to remove from the children’s skin if they are making the rocks? Is there a better solution to use that doesn’t stain skin or clothes… THANKS!!
The liquid watercolors we use are washable from most fabrics. Sometimes their skin will get stained for a bit, but it usually doesn’t last more than a few hours before washing off.
I cannot thank you enough for all the inspiration and freebies that I have used for my autistic granddaughter aged 7. I feel guilty at times that I have downloaded so much however when using these downloads for speech, writing, alphabets, counting and endless other activities you are with me and inspiring me to keep going with the therapy etc. Thank you so much, you are truly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful note! I am honored to know that I can support you to do the best for your granddaughter.
Great idea! I think I will do this with my gifted group and have them write directions on how to find the rocks .
Where did you find the gold coins? Were they US 1$? I assume fake plastic ones might fall apart in the vinegar?
They were fake. I assume they were plastic but I honestly can’t remember now as we did this activity a few years ago. We didn’t have any problems with the coins falling apart in the vinegar.
Thank you for the quick reply!
I know this is an old post but I just saw it. I can’t wait to try this with my little ones! They are going to love it!
What a cute idea and so unique to me. Our great grand children stay with us one weekend of every month and it just so happens that they will be with us the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day. I like to have fun things planned to do with them. They are 5 and 7 years old and will get a kick out of this. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing your creative ideas with those of us who are in a hurry to find something fun!!! I’m so LUCKY to have found this post.
This is such a fun idea! However after looking at nearly every store in town I couldn’t find a single gold coin (plastic or chocolate *sad*). So, I had to get creative. I found some green and gold pony beads and a few shamrock charms. I put those in the rocks and plan to have my kids make their own necklaces after the beads are all cleaned off. My three year old will be thrilled I’m sure, and double bonus I’ll be using the “rock’s” reaction as a lead in for my 4th grader’s science lesson! Thank you for sharing this fun idea!