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Project Ideas: St. Patrick's Day Projects

St. Patrick's Day can be a day for any family to come together and do something for their community. Here are just a few projects:

Leprechaun Bread and Gold Butter
Colleen's Can of Gold
Shamrock Suncatchers

Leprechaun Bread and Gold Butter

There is nothing more comforting than homemade bread and fresh butter. Help someone in your neighborhood or community this St. Patrick's Day by sending them warm wishes and yummy bread. Perhaps you will make a double recipe to share with your friends and family, too!

By participating in FamilyCares Leprechaun Bread and Gold Butter, your family is recognizing the effect of homemade bread to cheer, nourish and comfort others. To read about an organization that is spreading bread around the world (and which started with a loaf of Irish bread) visit Spread the Bread.

Time Required:

1 to 2 hours (including baking)

Materials Needed:

  • Green and yellow food coloring
  • Packaged bread mix or ingredients below
  • One pint of heavy cream
  • A pinch of salt
  • One quart-size jar with tight lid

Steps:

  1. Make the bread according to the package directions or the recipe below.
  2. Add green food coloring to the dough while kneading (mixing).
  3. Let the bread rise in a warm place.
  4. While the bread is rising you can start your butter.
  5. Pour the heavy cream into the quart-sized jar and add a pinch of salt.
  6. Also, add a few drops of yellow food coloring.
  7. Close the lid on the jar tightly.
  8. Shake the jar vigorously this will take a while and you might want to share the shaking.
  9. The butter will separate from the whey as you shake.
  10. Pour off the whey and spoon out the butter.
  11. Bake the bread according to directions.
  12. Deliver the warm bread and gold butter to an elderly neighbor, sick friend or lonely acquaintance. It would be nice to include a card or hand made shamrock with the gift.

Bread Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1 pkg. Active dry yeast
  • 1/4 c. warm water
  • 2 c. milk
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 stick of butter or margarine
  • 5 1/2 - 6 c. flour
  • Green food coloring
  1. Mix yeast in warm water.
  2. Heat milk, sugar, salt and butter in saucepan till warm and butter melts (115 degrees).
  3. Pour milk mixture and yeast into large bowl and add green food coloring.
  4. Slowly mix in flour, 2 cups at a time.
  5. Divide dough in half and shape each half into greased bread pans.
  6. Brush top of dough with melted butter.
  7. Let rise until double.
  8. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.
  9. You can test your bread by tapping on the crust. If it makes a hollow sound it is done.
  10. Makes two loaves of green bread.

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Colleen's Can of Gold (contributed by Stephanie Stewart)

You can deliver a "Can of Gold" to an elderly neighbor, a child in the hospital, or kids at a homeless or domestic violence shelter.

Time Required:

1 to 2 hours

Materials Needed:

  • An empty coffee can with a plastic lid
  • Gold spray paint
  • Green Construction Paper
  • Glue

Steps:

  1. Paint the coffee can with the gold spray paint
  2. Make green cookies or fill the can with green toys or art supplies
    • For cookies: A package of refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Green sugar sprinkles or green icing, green food coloring and a shamrock cookie cutter if desired
    • Or anything green to put in the can: green socks, stickers, a green yo-yo, green markers, etc.
  3. Write a poem about what is gold, what is treasure?
  4. Deliver the pot of gold to an elderly neighbor, sick child or lonely friend

Building a Random Pot of Gold
While leprechauns are searching for their pots of gold, you can build your own! What is gold anyway? Something precious? Something valuable? This St. Patrick's Day, gold will become your random golden deeds.

Time Required:

Ongoing

Materials Needed:

  • A black pot or bowl
  • Small rocks
  • A small gift bag for each child
  • Gold spray paint
  • A notebook or scrapbook

Steps:

  1. Spray the rocks with gold paint and allow to dry.
  2. Fill the black pot or bowl with the gold rocks.
  3. Put each child's name on a gift bag.
  4. The goal is to earn gold nuggets by doing golden deeds.
  5. Each time a child does a golden deed he/she is permitted to put one gold nugget in his bag.
  6. Label the notebook "Golden Nuggets."
  7. Write a short description of each child's golden deed in the scrapbook.

Ask them to illustrate if possible.

Alternate for large families or classrooms: Create a large rainbow with paint on banner paper. Make a black construction paper pot and gold nuggets from paper, too. Each golden deed gets recorded and placed in the black pot under the rainbow!

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Shamrock Suncatchers
This is a fun St. Patrick's Day project to brighten the window and smile of elderly patients or children.

Time Required:

1 hour

Materials Needed:

  • Two pieces of wax paper about 18" long
  • Pink and green construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Iron
  • Hand towel
  • Green yarn

Steps:

  1. Cut various shaped hearts from the pink and green paper.
  2. Arrange the hearts on one sheet of wax paper.
  3. When you arrange three hearts together at their points you make a shamrock!
  4. Make a mix of shamrocks and hearts.
  5. Lay the second sheet of wax paper over the design.
  6. Lay the hand towel over it all.
  7. Using a warm iron (adults only) gently iron the towel until the wax paper melts together.
  8. Trim the wax paper suncatcher and make a hole in the top for the yarn.
  9. Use the yarn to hang the suncatcher from a window latch.
  10. Your suncatcher can be delivered to a local hospital or the cafeteria at a nursing home.

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