Spot the Green

(And other fun St. Patrick's activities)

ADDED March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day, folks! Did everyone remember to wear green today? (One boy in my house insisted on wearing only blue. We let him go with that color choice.)

Here are some fun and satisfying St. Patrick's activities for today:

First, your kids have seen a lot of green on people's clothes today, undoubtedly. But on the ride home from school, how about having an out-the-car-windows green search? Yes, your kids have probably seen the sights on the drive many times before, but have they focused exclusively on green before?

Have them find all the green they can today, and ask them to point out green in two different categories: "regular green," the green that's always there anyway, and "special green," which are any new signs, banners, balloons or other decorations for St. Patrick's Day. How much regular and special green can your kids spot?

Second, you know we like dabbling in foreign languages. Well, why not use this special day to learn some colors in other tongues?

In Spanish, green is verde. Blue and yellow (which you need to mix to make green) are azul and amarillo, respectively.
In French, vert, bleu, and jaune.
In German, grün, blau, and gelb.
In Italian, verde, blu, and giallo.
In Japanese, midori, ao, and kiiro.

(Voices pronouncing the words can be found many places on the internet, such as Wordreference.com, and for the Japanese, this About.com sub-site.)

St. Patrick's Day really is a day in celebration in honor of Ireland. Have your kids join you at the computer for a Flickr trip of photos of Ireland. And visit Wikipedia's article on Ireland, too. What does Ireland's flag look like? And does anybody out there know the capital of Ireland?

You might want to check out this fun Irish song on itunes. It's only 99 cents. (Use the comment section below if you'd like to mention one of your favorite Irish songs.)

Have a great day (from your friends here at O'Today is Fun!)