With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, we have been having lots of fun with rainbows, leprechauns and pots of gold. So we were thrilled to check out this new festive children’s book starring Pete the Cat and pair it with some fun St. Patrick’s Day activities!

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Pete the Cat: The Great Leprechaun Chase was written and illustrated by James Dean. It’s St. Patrick’s Day and the popular cat has decided that he wants to open a leprechaun catching business. He comes up with a plan to catch leprechauns for his customers, but when he meets Clover the tricky leprechaun, he discovers that it may not be as easy as he thinks. The antics of Pete and Clover are sure to entertain kids, while parents will appreciate the sweet message of the story. The illustrations are vibrantly colored and childlike, showcasing the cute Pete and his giant eyes.

Fine Motor Rainbow Craft

This easy rainbow craft allowed us to practice fine motor skills, and also have fun with finger paints and cotton balls. To prepare this craft, I cut a rectangle into a paper plate and used a hole punch to make 6 holes in each end of the rectangle. Next I tied a piece of white string into the first hole so it could be pulled tight.

We threaded red pony beads onto the string until it reached the hole at the other end of the rectangle. Next, we threaded the string through the hole and back up through the hole next to it. Then we used orange beads, followed by yellow, green, blue, and then purple. After we finished the purple section, we tied the string through the last hole.

I cut a simple pot shape out of black paper and glued it to the plate at the end of the rainbow. Next, my daughter used her fingers to make gold coin fingerprints around the top of the pot. I spread some glue along the top edge of the rainbow and she had fun stretching cotton balls out and sticking it to the glue to create fluffy clouds.

Related Post: St. Patrick’s Day Books to Share 

Find the Pot of Gold

Throughout the book, Pete is hunting for a leprechaun. We decided to have some fun with this idea and create a scavenger hunt that helped us to work on following directions. I hid a pile of small gold coins, and left hints around the house leading her from one to the next. She loved finding the hints, and got so excited whenever she got a new one.

You can easily change this game up to work on different skills based on your child’s needs. Perhaps your clues will be based on colors (under something red), or on directional clues (behind, above, under, etc). This is one that you can do over and over again with all ages!

Race to the Pot of Gold

This simple game is a fun way to work on probability and graphing, while also using finger paints or yummy treats. Print out this blank grid, or create your own chart with at least 6 columns. Next, write one color underneath each column. (If you are using Skittles, M&Ms or another candy, you will want to use the colors in the bag to determine your categories.)

Ask kids to guess which color they think will fill in the entire column first. Give kids a die and assign a color from your chart to each number. Each child will roll the die and add the correct color to the next box on their chart. You can fill the boxes with thumbprints in paint or ink, or with the colored candies.

This game can introduce kids to the concept of graphing, and can also start conversations about probability. If you are using bags of candy, you could cut a small hole in the top and let the randomness of the bag take the place of rolling the die. Have kids remove one piece of candy at a time and add that color to their chart.

Check out these St. Patrick’s Day activities with ROY G BIV the Leprechaun

Escape My Leprechaun Trap

Pete wants to catch a leprechaun with a sneaky trap. This gave us the perfect opportunity to create fun traps for one another. My daughter is really loving obstacle courses right now, so she jumped at the chance to play this game. First, I created an obstacle course for her using different skills that we have been working on (jumping, crawling, stepping over things). We have been using the Ultimate Fort Builder from Lakeshore Learning to create forts and courses lately, but you can use anything you have around the house to create your own obstacles or purchase a similar kit here.

I placed some gold coins at the end for her to retrieve. She soon decided that she wanted to create some obstacles for me to get through as well. It was a lot of fun coming up with different obstacles to trap one another, and listening to her laughter while I tried to defeat her trap made all the struggle worth it.

What are your favorite St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids?

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