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Materials Needed:
* Black construction paper
* Googly Eyes
* Glue
* Scissors
* Piece of yarn
* Crayons or Markers
* Party streamers (color optional)
* Stickers (optional)

This idea came from the Middlesex Borough Library and is a great way to get in the festive mood.

1. Draw a bat on the black construction paper (parents will need to do this for younger children). Use a template if desired.
2. Cut out the bat shape.

3. Let your child decorate the bat with markers or crayons. Stickers can be added if desired.

4. Glue on the eyes.

5. If you want, glue on as many streamers as desired.

6. Cut a small hole in the top of the bat and attach the yarn. Then hang and enjoy!

5.

Materials needed:
* card stock, colored or construction paper
* crayons or makers
* photo of your child in Halloween costume
* scissors & glue (optional)
* stickers (optional)

What better way to share the Halloween holiday with distant loved ones than a special card? Younger children might need a little help but let your child decide what the design will be.

Use crayons or markers to create a Halloween scene and embellish with stickers or pasted pictures, if desired. For an extra special card, include a photo of your child in Halloween attire.

Materials needed:
* colored paper
* crayons (or markers if preferred)

It's such a simple idea but sometimes those are overlooked. Just get some paper and encourage your child to draw a Halloween scene.

And then you can decorate your child's room or part of the house for Halloween with

Materials Needed
* sheet of construction paper
* red, white and blue paint
* glue
* wooden stick
* optional - star stickers

1. Take a sponge or paint brush and apply different colors to your child's fingers and palm
2. Then help your child place their hand on the paper
3. When the paint is dry, apply the stickers and glue the wooden stick to the paper
4. Your flag is now complete and you have a personalized memento.

Idea from the Middlesex Borough Recreation Department

Here are some resources that help kids celebrate green! Don't forget to check out our recommended reading.

ParenthoodNJ Crafts - including our Shamrock Mouse
DLTK Growing Together - St. Patrick's Day activities including dot-art printables, coloring pages, games and more
Enchanted Learning - St. Patrick's Day crafts & activities
KinderArt - St. Patrick's day projects including a Shamrock mask and printable coloring pages

Craft books:
Crafts for St. Patrick's Day by Kathy Ross

Items Needed:
(see below for alternate materials)
* piece of green felt
* piece of pink felt
* pink pom pom
* googly eyes or felt or paper eyes
* black yarn or pipe cleaner
* craft glue
* scissors
* black marker
* magnet (optional)



Recommended for preschoolers & older (although adults will need to help with scissors for younger kids)

I discovered this craft in Crafts for St. Patrick's Day by Kathy Ross and my 4-year-old and I decided to give it a try. Now, I'm often unprepared for our impromptu craft sessions so there are suggested alternatives to the items needed, depending on what you have and your child's preference. The steps for completing this project are basically the same, regardless of the materials used.

First cut out a shamrock shape from your green felt (or paper, see below). If you're like me and can't really draw, you can trace a template from online and use that to cut your shape. Young children will need help cutting this shape, especially if you're using felt.

Then draw and cut out the inner ears from the pink felt or paper. These are basically a heart shape.

Your child can then glue the inner ears to the shamrock shape and then attach the nose. Whether you use googly eyes or make your own out of felt or paper, your child can glue those next. (Note: the larger eyes look best; we tried smaller ones and the mouse looked a bit shifty).

Then glue the whiskers and your St. Patrick's Day Mouse is complete.

Alternate Materials:
- if you don't have felt, you can do this entire project with paper and yarn. Just use colored paper for the shamrock, eyes, nose and ears and yarn for the whiskers
- if you don't have googly eyes, you can make eyes out of white felt or paper; just cut out two circles and then use a black marker to make the pupils
- Kathy Ross' book called for yarn for the whiskers but my daughter wanted to use a black pipe cleaner. Just cut it to desired length, bend and glue onto the face
- if you don't have a small pom pom you can cut out the nose from a piece of leftover pink felt or paper
- you can turn this into a festive magnet by attaching a small magnet to the back

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Items Needed:
* Heart-shaped cookie cutter (sizes optional)
* Piece of white paper
* Glitter Glue or glitter paint
* Pencil or marker
* Scissors (optional)

A quick and easy craft for young children.

Place the cookie cutter on the paper and draw or help your child to trace the heart. You can draw as many hearts as you want and if you have various sizes of cookie cutters, you can mix and match.

If you want to highlight the border of the hearts, use a marker, otherwise use a pencil.

Have your child paint the inside of the hearts with the glitter glue or paint.

You can:
- leave the hearts on the paper and give as a gift or showcase as a Valentine Decoration
- cut out the hearts and use them to decorate a Valentine's Day card (you'll need small hearts for this or a larger piece of paper than 8 1/2 by 11 for the card)
- cut out the hearts and tape them to a door or window to create some festive decor

Items Needed:
* A piece of pink or red construction paper
* A piece of white copy or construction paper
* Glitter Glue or Glitter Paint
* Craft Glue
* Scissors
* Pencil

Kids of all ages can do this craft although younger children will need help with the cutting.

Fold your colored construction paper in half and draw half a heart. Then cut it out.

Fold the paper in other sections and draw and cut smaller hearts. The location of these hearts is up to you.

Have or help your child use the craft glue to attach the colored construction paper to the white paper.

Then decorate the white sections with glitter paint or glitter glue. You can add sequins for extra dazzle.

Don't throw out the hearts you cut out. You can use them:
- by placing them loose in a Valentine's Day Card's envelope
- you can use them to decorate a Valentine Card

Items Needed:
* Heart-shaped doilies in red and white (color and sizes are optional)
* Glitter Glue or Glitter Paint (clear or white glitter paint works best here)
* Craft Glue (if you don't use glitter glue)
* Red, pink or white construction paper (optional)

This is a quick and easy craft for even very young children because they can just slap on the glitter glue and it will still look pretty and sparkly.

You can use a piece of red, pink or white construction paper as a background or you can choose to just have the doilies decorated. You can also pick smaller doilies and attach them to a folded piece of construction paper to decorate the cover of a card.

To do the craft the way we did, attach the larger doily to the construction paper with craft glue or glitter glue. Note, we used glitter glue for this step and my daughter was very liberal with the glue which is why it looks puckered in the photo. It looks fine but if you want to avoid the puckering use regular craft glue for this step.

Then attach the smaller doily to the larger one using glitter glue or use craft glue and then paint it with sparkling paint. There is no "right way" to do this. Let your child spread as little or as much glue or paint as they'd like. If you don't want the craft to get too wet and pucker, try having them decorate the doilies first and then attach them to the construction paper when they're mostly dry.

You can vary this craft with different colored doilies and backgrounds, varied glue colors or add sequins.

Items Needed:
* Construction Paper (pink or red best)
* Pencil
* Glitter Glue (color is up to you)
* Festive stickers
* Scissors
* Rhinestones (optional)
* Crayons or markers (if you decide this is a card)
Recommended age: toddlers and older can do this although with very young kids you will need to cut for them and you might want to skip the glitter glue or help apply it.

Fold a piece of construction paper in half and draw half a heart shape along the fold. Cut out the heart shape along the line you've drawn.

Note: If you'd like to make another craft with the leftover paper, cut out two pieces of paper and click here for more information.

Unfold the heart that you've cut out.

If your child wants this to be a Valentine's Day card, have them decorate and write on the inside first.

When done with the inside, or if you simply want this to be a decoration, adorn the front of the heart with stickers and glitter glue. If you have rhinestones, you can place them on your heart stickers or in a variety of ways. We swirled the glitter glue on the paper but you can choose what design you'd prefer.

To swirl the glitter glue, apply a small blob onto the paper and then use the tip of the applicator to "draw" the shape. When the glitter runs out, apply another blob to the end and then spread it out again. Continue until your shape is finished. A preschooler can do this with some parental guidance, depending on the shape.

If you use a lot of glitter glue it can kind of warp the paper so you can either use a thicker paper or take the second cut-out heart (if you had cut a second heart) and glue it to the decorated heart.