Would you like to add a little art, music, poetry, food and fun to your St. Patrick's Day this year?
Then, you may wish to take a peak at how we enjoyed a St. Patrick's Day Poet-Tea with friends last year.:
"AMP"ing Up the Liturgical Year
First, for those who are unfamiliar with our A.M.P. It Up Club endeavors, a quick synopsis:
Since 2015, some friends and I have been getting out children together for a once-to-twice a month club to "amp up" our focus on art, music, and poetry in our lives. Typically, at our meetings we:
- recite (and sometimes write verses of) poetry.
- briefly study composers, compositions, music styles, or instruments.
- experiment with different styles of artwork, sometimes after completing quick picture studies.
We also tie our meetings to the liturgical year at times, since all of us are Catholic and enjoy celebrating together. That's exactly what we did for St. Patrick's feast day!
The Setting
- an off-white tablecloth (because the lacy, white tablecloth I wanted to use, reminiscent of Irish lace needed to be laundered after a just-us celebration earlier in the day)
- green and blue candles (because the color green is now associated with St. Patrick's day, but St. Patrick was often depicted in blue in earlier art)
- several Irish-themed knick knacks (just for fun since we had them out already)
- a shamrock candle holder that my niece had welded and given us as a gift (to remind us of the legend that St. Patrick used shamrocks to teach about the Trinity)
- Prayers to My Favorite Saints (so we could view the illustration of St. Patrick in in and read the prayer)
- a print out about Celtic crosses (so we could explain them to the children)
A St. Patrick's Day Poet-Tea
To begin our Poet-Tea, we prayed grace and chatted about what we knew about St. Patrick the Saint and other St. Patrick's day traditions and lore using the food on our table as a starting point. The fare included:
After that, I offered the children their choice of copywork of Irish blessings or St. Patrick's Breastplate (found FREE at Proverbs 22:6 Academy!) to do for a brief time and encouraged those who wished to pen their own Irish-style blessings.
Music Appreciation and Games
After a short period for copywork, we knew the children were ready to move and groove, so I played some traditional Irish music while the kids danced.
We talked a bit about what types of instruments we heard in the music and played a bit of "dance freeze".
The children so enjoyed playing sneaky snakes.
Running up to steal the bell..
Trying not to be heard...
And catching one another...
Then, we browsed some of the beautiful landscapes illustrations in Ann Tompert's Saint Patrick and other seasonal picture books I had in our book basket before setting to work using pencils, Cray-Pas and Crayola Oil Pastels to create our own imagined landscapes.
Some of the children went with the Saint Patrick's Ireland theme for their artwork and others did not. See:
Indeed, they decided it was time for a parade.
Some Final Fun
In years past, my children have enjoyed many Irish and St. Patrick's day themed picture books, including:
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Thus, little family traditions of having our bells and drums out around St. Patrick's day and parading around with them have sprung up. This year, these traditions were shared with friends in our own little noisy parade.
More St. Patrick's Day Ideas
If you'd like other ideas for celebrating St. Patrick's Day, you may wish to click on through to some of these:
- Throw the Snakes Out of Ireland (get your FREE Printable challenge sheet)
he Kennedy Adventures Shamrock Sandwiches How-To
- The Kennedy Adventures Irish Frosties recipe
- The Kennedy Adventures collection of St. Patrick's Day Snacks
- Life, Love and Sacred Art's adorable FREE printable St. Patrick Coloring Page
- Fun ideas at A Slice of Smith Life
I'd love to hear about how YOU celebrate St. Patrick's Day or approach art, music, and poetry.
