Enjoy a St. Patrick's Day with Art, Music, and a Poet-Tea

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

We kept our setting fairly simple:

• 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

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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:

 Green Matcha Donuts (going with the Irish green theme)

 Potato Hashbrowns (because Ireland is known for its potatoes)

 A Potato-and-More Frittata with "Shamrock" Garnish (because we all need a little protein!)

 An "Irish Flag" Veggie Tray

 Traditional Irish Stew

 A Fruit Rainbow (for the leprechaun legends)

 Green Smoothies(for Ireland's green)  "Liquid Gold" Juice (for the leprechaun legends again), Chocolate Silk (just because we like it) and Irish tea

 More Potato Hash (for Ireland's potatoes)

Leprechaun Gold Juice Wigglers (because my children love juice wigglers)

Oatmeal (because some of mine loves "Irish" oatmeal)

I also drew the children's attention to the illustration and text about St. Patrick in Prayers to My Favorite Saints and led them in further prayer. 

As the children began to eat, for the poetry portion of our Poet-Tea, I read them St. Patrick's Breastplate and some Irish Blessings, (but only a few, so we could all enjoy just eating and chatting together.)  

Then, while we cleaned up the tea, those who wished to took turns playing with our green bodysock (which my children always ask me to pull out at this time of year!)

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".

Then, I asked if anyone could tell me about St. Patrick and the bells and shared a bit from one of our favorite seasonal picture books, St. Patrick and the Three Brave Mice, before taking everyone outside to play our old favorite Snake Freeze,which is always a hit. 

The children so enjoyed playing sneaky snakes.

Running up to steal the bell..

Trying not to be heard...

 

And catching one another...

The Mamas did, too!  So many laughs were had by all.

Imaginative Landscapes Artwork

Once we everyone had had turns at our game, we gathered together to do a picture study about landscapes in my ARTistic Pursuits Elementary Book One.  

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:

 

All enjoyed our time together observing Saint Patrick's Day with art, music, poetry and more.  In fact, once the children completed their artwork, they were not quite ready to stop celebrating...

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:

Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland

St. Patrick's Day in the Morning

The Last Snake in Ireland

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:

• Feast, Learn, and Enjoy Sensory Activities for Saint Patrick's Feast Day

   

• Planning a Sense-able St. Patrick’s Day Tea and Playdate

• A Sensory-Friendly St. Patrick’s Day Story and Play Time 

• 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. 

St. Patrick, pray for us!

This post was shared at the 40 Days of Seeking Him Link up