March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day! This is a super colorful craft to make with the classroom. Kids love assembling paper chains, and the rainbow chain allows lots of opportunity for practicing color vocabulary. PLUS it can definitely double as a DIY St. Patrick’s Day decoration for party time! So let’s shamrock ‘n roll and make a rainbow paper chain!
Things you’ll need
- Colorful construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Ruler
- Pen or pencil
- Hole punch
- String
- Bottle cap (to trace)
- Bowl or small plate (to trace)
Steps
Draw a large cloud and a smaller cloud on a piece of white paper. Cut out the two clouds.
Snip a 2” slot at the base of the large cloud. This will be used later to feed the first chain link.
Cut two additional strips of white paper, layer them, and fold them into a ‘Z’ shape.
Glue the top and bottom of the ‘Z’ strips to connect the large and small clouds. This will give the cloud an extra special three dimensional look.
To make the rainbow strips for your chain, cut the first piece 8.5” long by 1 ¼” wide. Once you have this first strip cut out, layer the other colorful sheets of paper underneath and cut multiple strips at once.
To assemble, start by looping your first color into the slot on your cloud. Close the loop by using a glue stick to stick two ends together. You could also use some tape or a stapler.
Use a small plate to trace a round pot shape onto black construction paper. Next, draw a curved line for the opening, and a rim edge on either side of the pot. Draw two rounded feet on the bottom.
Cut out your lucky pot of gold! Now let’s make the gold…
Place the pot on top of a piece of yellow construction paper. Draw a mound of coins using a marker and a bottle cap. Trace the cap to make multiple individual coins.
Cut out the mound of coins and the individual coins.
Glue the rim of the pot over the coins together. Glue the bottom of the coins to the pile. Bend the coins out for a three dimensional effect.
Glue the last chain loop to the back of the gold coins.
To hang it up, punch two holes in the top of the cloud and loop a piece of string through it.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Want to keep the color fun going? Enjoy this free printable coloring page for “The Rainbow Song”.
