We’re pretty crazy about St. Patrick’s Day around here (despite not being Irish!), so be on the lookout for several shamrock-themed crafts and recipes this week. In this first version, kids will love the reveal of the shamrock shape after they finish dotting their paint!

First, cut out a shamrock, either free-hand or using a template.

You can tape the shamrocks down to construction paper or poster board, but we actually did ours on foam board – this allowed us to later use it as a sign at our town’s St. Patrick’s parade.

Now you have two ways to dot paint around the shamrocks. First, there are good old dot paints.

For a novelty version, set out a tray of green paint and use pencil erasers to make small dots.

We liked doing both, to compare the big and little dots side by side.

Once you’ve finished dotting, peel up the shamrock shapes – voila! The silhouette is left behind. Now off to the parade!