St. Patrick’s Day STEM Activity: Simple and Fun!
I really love a good STEM project.
I love how they get kids engaged, thinking, and learning!
It is a huge plus when they have an art project to show off when it’s all over!
Our homeschool had a lot of fun with our Valentine’s Day STEM Project, so I decided to design this simple STEM activity for St. Patrick’s Day!
St. Patrick’s Day STEM Activity Inspiration
I love to hit up our local Dollar Tree for all things holiday supplies.
I was standing in the aisles and wondering what I wanted to do this year for a St. Patrick’s Day STEM activity.
What kind of challenge could I come up with that had to do with green shamrocks?
I have one daughter who is CRAZY about the color green and another daughter who LOVES to mix things together and see what happens.
They also love all things art and crafting.
As I looked at the things on the shelf and thought about what I had at home, my mind started turning with all the possibilities!
Alright, get ready to dig in and have fun with this festive St. Patrick’s Day STEM activity with your kids!
St. Patrick’s Day STEM Activity!
1. Gather Your Supplies On a Good Work Surface
You will only need a few basic things for this St. Patrick’s Day STEM Challenge:
– Yellow and Blue Paint (you can use acrylic, washable – whatever you have on hand. This is my favorite paint to use with my homeschoolers.)
– Shamrocks to Trace (We found some sparkly ones at Dollar Tree)
– 5 small containers to mix paint in (You can use anything, but we found some cute plastic “pots of gold” at Dollar Tree)
– White Paper (This is our paper of choice for all painting projects)
– Pencil
2. Ask your children how the color green is mixed
Some kids may know right away, others will stare at you blankly.
If your kids are clueless, take some time, and talk to them about the color wheel.
The three primary colors – Yellow, Red, Blue – are the foundation of all colors.
You might also mention that white and black are also considered primary colors that are used to lighten or darken a color.
3. Have your children guess how much yellow and how much blue to put in the first container and what they think will happen when it is mixed.
Here is where the science starts to come into what looks a lot like an art project.
Your children need to come up with a hypothesis, test their hypothesis, and record the results.
Write the numbers (how much blue and how much yellow) down next to the container you will be mixing in, add the paint by droplets, and mix with a paintbrush.
Use the paintbrush to make a swipe of color on a piece of paper and let your children examine it.
Is it too blue-green?
Too dark?
Too yellow-green?
There are many shades of green!
Ask your children if it’s the green they were hoping for.
It not, how can they adjust the amounts of yellow and blue paint to get a better green?
***We started off with a darker shade of blue, so our first attempt of equal parts blue and yellow produced a very blue-green color.
4. Have your children continue to give you different ratios of blue and green paint and see how many shades you get!
And this is where you are going to start seeing some MATH in your art project!
You student may now be using and understanding ratios for the first time.
They are essentially building a recipe for their ideal green color.
Make sure to tell then how important it is to record their ratio, so that they can make the color again for their painting!
5. Place Your Shamrocks on Paper and Have Your Children Trace Them
Depending on the age of your children, definitely help them with this part of the St. Patrick’s Day STEM project.
Remember to press light enough that it doesn’t show up under paint, but hard enough that you can still see it.
6. Have Your Children Use Their Favorite “Recipes” of Green to Paint Their Shamrocks
Your kids will likely run out of paint while making their shamrock creations.
This is a great time to remind them that they can mix the SAME color again because they have the ratios written down!
Questions to ask Your Kids During and After Your St. Patrick’s Day STEM Activity:
How do you make the color green?
What happens when you add more blue than yellow?
What happens when you add more yellow than blue?
Why does 3 drops blue/ 3 drops yellow make the same shade of green as 6 drops blue/6 drops yellow?
Did you know there were so many shades of green?
Which shade is your favorite? Why?
Was it harder to mix your perfect green than you thought it would be? Why?
More Ideas for your St. Patrick’s Day STEM Activity!
– Older kids may really enjoy painting half a shamrock, mixing more paint from their recorded ratio, and painting the other half of the shamrock to see if they can achieve an exact match.
– You may also challenge older children to try to mix an exact match (and record the blue/yellow ratio) to a green shirt, the green shamrock they traced, or anything else you have that’s green.
– To make more shades of green, provide drops of black or white to darken or lighten the paint.
– Younger kids may enjoy the challenge of building a different pattern of green for each shamrock they paint.
Blue-green, dark green, yellow-green. Blue-green, dark green, yellow-green.
Dark green, yellow-green, dark green, yellow-green.
Let them have fun with it!
Be sure to display their hard work for the whole family to see!
Your kids will be very proud and inspired by what they were able to accomplish.
Feel free to play off their excitement and let them experiment with blending lots of different colors to make a spring picture or rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it!
Want to make sure you remember all this for later?
Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board and share with your friends and followers!
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