St Patrick's Day Sensory Play Activities

As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, it’s time to add a pinch of fun and a splash of color to your sensory play experiences! Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or caregiver, these St. Patrick’s Day-themed sensory activities are fantastic for kids of all ages. From exploring slimy Oobleck to diving into rainbow-colored rice, there’s something magical for everyone to try.

St Patrick’s Day Sensory Activities

There are so many fun ways to mix up sensory play for special days! Take any of our sensory play recipes and give them a green theme for St. Patrick’s Day. Simple items such as a black plastic pot and gold coins are a perfect touch on a budget.

See our many ways to enjoy sensory play with kids here!

Watch the video:

Free Printable Sensory Play Guide

Grab this free sensory play guide for quick ideas this St Patrick’s Day!

Sensory Play Recipes for Kids

Treasure Hunt in Oobleck: Dive into a sea of squishy, slimy Oobleck and embark on a treasure hunt adventure. Hide small treasures like plastic coins or shiny beads in the Oobleck. Challenge kids to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Throw in a bit of non-Newtonian fluid science, too.

Rainbow-Colored Rice: Create a pot of vibrant, rainbow-colored rice and let little hands explore the textures and colors of the rainbow. Use different shades of food coloring to dye the rice with our simple how to recipe. Rice is an amazing texture for sensory play.

Learn how to dye rice here quickly and easily!

Shamrock Homemade Playdough: Whip up a batch of homemade playdough using our favorite recipe. Mold, shape, and create shamrocks, leprechauns, and other St. Patrick’s Day-themed shapes for hours of creative fun. You can even add a quick counting lesson!

Green and Gold Slime Recipes: Get ready to stretch, squish, and squeeze with our magical green and gold slime recipes. Mix up a batch of slime using simple ingredients like glue, saline solution, and food coloring.

Shaving Cream Messy Play: Dive into this sensory bin filled with fluffy shaving cream. Add a few drops of green food coloring to create a festive St. Patrick’s Day-themed sensory experience. Perfect for sensory exploration and messy play.

St Patrick’s Day Sensory Bottles Explore the senses with the eyes! Sensory bottles or jars (discovery bottles) are a unique way to view a variety of textures mess free!

St Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin Ideas

Sensory bins are a fantastic hands-on learning activity for young kids. Here’s everything you need to know about making sensory bins.

Lucky Charms Sorting: Fill a sensory bin with a mix of Lucky Charms cereal and challenge children to sort the marshmallow shapes by color or shape using tongs or their fingers.

Pot of Gold Sensory Bin: Fill a bin with black beans or coffee beans and hide small gold coins or treasures for kids to discover. Other sensory bin fillers include:

Kinetic Sand
Dyed Rice
Shredded paper or grass
Pom Poms

Rainbow Pasta Sensory Play: Dye cooked pasta in vibrant rainbow colors using food coloring and let children explore the sensory delights of running their fingers through the slippery noodles.

Leprechaun’s Garden Sensory Bin: Fill a bin with soil or kinetic sand and add miniature pots, fake flowers, and small gardening tools. Then, kids can play pretend as they tend to their little garden.

See our garden sensory bin here or our Mini Leprechaun Garden here.

Rainbow Foam Sensory Bin: Mix up batches of colored foam using dish soap, water, and food coloring, and let children explore the textures and colors of the rainbow in a fluffy, sensory-filled experience.

Try our fantastic Soap Foam sensory play recipe here.

Clover Leaf Sensory Bin: Fill a bin with green shredded paper or green sensory filler and hide foam clover leaves for children to find and explore.

Gold Nugget Dig: Fill a bin with sand or kinetic sand and bury small gold-painted rocks or nuggets for children to dig and discover using shovels or scoops.

St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Soup: Fill a bin with water and add green food coloring and plastic shamrocks or gold coins for children to mix and stir as they create magical sensory soup.

Rainbow Pom-Pom Sorting: Fill a bin with colorful pom-poms and provide tweezers or tongs for children to sort the pom-poms by color into matching containers.

See our Ice Cream pom pom sensory bin here.

Check Out These Helpful Sensory Bin Resources

There’s so much more to learn about sensory bins and sensory play.

More Fun St. Patrick’s Day Activities For Kids

Also, check out…

Printable St. Patrick’s Day STEM Pack

Over 100 pages of easy-to-use STEM activities will make your prep and planning time a cinch! Cheap supplies, easy to set up and clean up, and full of hands-on fun!

25+ St. Patrick’s Day science activities and STEM projects for kids that are easy to set up and fit into your available time, even if it’s limited!
Printable leprechaun theme STEM activities that are simple but engaging for home or classroom. Perfect for K-2 and beyond but easily adaptable to many skill levels.
Includes simple background science explanations to share with kids while they explore hands-on and playful experiments, projects, and activities such as simple physics and chemistry concepts.
Engaging St. Patrick’s Day STEM activities pack with theme activities, journal pages, and design process steps! Learn about the design process and think like an engineer while you design and build a Leprechaun Trap!
Easy to gather supplies makes these STEM activities ideal when you have limited resources available. Try the leprechaun launcher or rocket! Solve codes and puzzles, too.
Additional STEM activities Include the tallest gold coin tower challenge, brick building challenges, math task cards, and screen-free coding activities.
Bonus fun pack includes games and activities to round out your St. Patrick theme activities, such as I Spy, bingo, matching, Would You Rather cards, board games, word puzzles, and more! Perfect for parties, too!

St Patrick’s Day Sensory Play Activities