I don't know exactly why, but I think painting with food is particularly fun. My kids really liked all the apple stamping we did in the fall, so I have been looking for some more food stamping ideas. We recently had smores, and I had some marshmallows left that I didn't want to go to waste. It was the perfect time to brainstorm all the ways we could paint with marshmallows for St. Patty's Day. For our first painting, my almost 3 year old did a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. When we work one-on-one doing art, he has exceptional focus. His artwork always amazes me for his age! But, I think this could look really cute for a broad range of ages and abilities. The next day, he and my 5 year old did ☘️s 2 ways.
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For the pot of gold, I drew a pot with a grey marker on a 11x 14 poster board. I didn't use paint because I didn't have time for it to dry before my little guy would be reaching over it. If you want the pot painted, you can do it the night before. Or, if you have a very patient child, they can paint the pot and then do the marshmallow painting after it dries. We used gold and yellow for the coins. My son surprised me with how carefully he was stamping, but by the time he was done with the coins, he was ready to try a new technique. He had fun dragging the marshmallows in straight lines for the rainbow. I know the order of a rainbow is ROYGBIV, but he is in "threenager" mode and needed to choose the colors himself which is actually great. He owned his work! I used Crayola Washable Kids Paint for everything except the gold. I just used a regular acrylic paint and I watched him extra carefully with that one. Here are the pictures of our fun!
For the shamrock painting, my 5 year old was home and we made it freestyle because when the two little boys are together there isn't a lot of focus. And, I know open-ended art is important too! We did them with single marshmallows first and then hot glued 3 together and stamped that way. See what works best for your child. The kids also liked dabbing around a stencil. We used paper because we made quiet a bit of shamrocks!
If you try marshmallow painting be sure to share your pictures. And, yes several marshmallows were eaten in the process 😋 even by mommy.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Don't forget to check out other St. Patrick's Day Activities HERE.
Dragon Mama