St. Patrick's Day Index

Above are four shamrock crafts from this blog.

         St. Patrick Day is celebrated in honor of the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he was born near the site of what is now Dumbarton, Scotland. At the age of sixteen he was taken captive to Ireland, but after six years he escaped. Feeling himself called to abolish paganism from the land of his captivity, he studied for the ministry, was consecrated bishop of Ireland, and began his missionary work there in 432. A. D. It is said that he founded 300 churches in the island and baptized more than 12,000 converts. Patrick left an autobiography which he called a Confession, but it was more psychology than historic, and the known facts of his life are few. Legend says he drove the snakes out of  Ireland, and that he worked miracles. "Saint Patrick's day," the seventeenth of March, is celebrated by the Irish people throughout the world.

• St. Patrick's Day coloring pages from The Crayon Palace
• St. Patrick's Day clip art from The Christian Clip Art Review
• St. Patrick's Day clip art from Thrifty Scissors
• Search Our Doll Crafts for St. Patrick's Day

 Artifacts for The Celebration of Saint Patrick's Day:

1. Stories, Books, and Film for Celebrating St. Patrick's Day
2. Ossain Sang
3. St. Patrick's Greatness
4. AEolian Harp
5. Craft Three Age Appropriate Clover Mosaics for St. Patrick's Day
6. The Earth and Man
7. Pattern for stamp box in pyrography
8. "St. Patrick's Day In The Morning"
9. Gracie Og Machree
10. "Oh Danny Boy"
11. St. Patrick's Day Silhouettes
12. Paper Snake Mosaics
13. Irish Lullaby
14. St. Patrick's Day Crafts and Craft Links
15. St. Patrick, Ireland's Patron Saint
16. A Fairy Necklace
17. Flower Fairies
18. Shamrock Song
19. A Sunshine Rainbow 
20. Draw bees and clover for St. Patrick's Day
    
21. A Sky Rainbow  
22. The Ivy Green by Charles Dickens
    

  Vivian shares her leprechaun trap, a common art assignment

in some American schools during the month of March.
Check out Natalie's classroom leprechaun traps.

Easter Holiday Index

Twins hunting eggs at the White House.

       Easter, the festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ, observed in many branches of the Christian Church. By the first Christians it was regarded as continuing the feast of the Passover, at which the paschal lamb, a symbol of Christ, was sacrificed. Hence its name in Greek and in the Romance languages is taken from the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover.

       The English name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre, a pagan goddess of light or spring, whose festival was celebrated in April. There was a long dispute in the Christian Church as to the proper time for holding Easter, the Christians of the East celebrating it on the same day as that on which the Jewish Passover fell, that is the fourteenth of Nisan, while the majority of the Church celebrated it on the Sunday next after this day. The controversy was decided by the Council of Nice in 325, which fixed Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21. If the full moon happens on a Sunday, Easter is the Sunday after.

• Easter or Lenten Holiday Coloring from Crayon Palace
• Coloring for Easter & Lent at Color The Bible
• Search Our Easter Doll Crafts Index at The Doll Coloring Book Blog
• More about Easter here for poems and here for articles
  

The Celebration of Easter: Much of this content may be used for creating newsletters for parents and teachers. Some of it is good for child recitations. I will be adding puzzles and paper crafts to these posts that are Easter/Spring themed as well. Enjoy!

1. The First Easter from St. Luke 
2. Easter Even - poem by Christina G. Rossetti 
3. Easter Songs in Verse and For Coloring
   
4. Easter Day in Rome - poem by Oscar Wilde 
5. Easter message with chics...
   
6. The Story of Easter Eggs - poem by Christoph Von Schmid 
7. "Easter Greetings" for all God's creatures... 
8. "Easter Lilies" and Window Boxes Too... - poem by Susan Coolidge
9. "Mary" and a Primrose paper cut- poem by Margaret E. Sangster  
10. Why I Love Jesus
    
11. Easter Singers in the Vorarlburg from - "Chamber's Book of Days"
12. Easter Joys, Spring Redresses Nature
    
13. Mary's Easter  - poem by Marie Mason 
14. To An Easter Lily 
15. Medieval Easter Plays - by Henry Barret Hinckley  
16. The Little Boy
    
17. The Day of Victory - poem by Rachel Capen Schauffler 
18. The Stories I Like 
19. The Stone of the Sepulcher - poem by Susan Coolidge 
20. Easter Bells
    
21. At Easter Time  - poem by Laura E. Richards 
22. Easter Message
    
23. Easter Dawn - poem by Frances Ridley Havergal  
24. The First Easter
    
25. Easter Organ Music - poem by Harvey B. Gaul 
26. My Easter Bunny
    
27. Song of Easter - poem by Celia Thaxter 
28. Poem "I Wonder" and Butterfly Paper Craft
    
29. Nature's Easter Music - poem by Lucy Larcom 
30. Easter Secret 
31. How Moravians Observe Easter - poem by Charles H, Rominger  
32. Easter's Brightness
    
33. Poem "Awakening" and A Tulip Border Craft - poem by Rose Terry Cook 
34. "Tis Easter Day".
    
35. On Easter Morn - poem by Edith M. Thomas 
36. "Jesus Knew" and Palm Leaf Paper Cut Border
    
37. Russian Easters - Abridged from The Saturday Review 
38. Easter Day
    
39. An Easter Carol - poem by Christina G. Rossetti  
40. Easter Message
    
41. Easter Even - poem by Margaret French Patton
42. Easter Lily 
43. The Barren Easter - poem by Clinton Scollard
44. A Madrigal - poem by Clinton Scollard 
45. The Bells of Kremlin  - by Augustus J. G. C. Hare 
46. Of The Lord's Day and Easter - by William Cave 
47. Poem "Compensation" and Daffodil Border Craft
48. Singing and tweeting all "Easter Week"  - poem by Charles Kingsley
49. The Apparition of Christ to His Mother - poem by Mrs. Jameson
50. Easter - poem by Genevieve M. J. Irons
51. Easter Day - poem by Josephine Rice Creelman 
52. A Glimpse of Easter in the Azores - by Henry Sandham 
53. Egg Rolling at The White House
54. Easter Morning - by Edmund Spenser
55. Easter Wings - poem by George Herbert
56. An Easter Greeting To Every Child Who Loves  Alice" - by Lewis Carroll
57. Easter Lilies - poem by Mary Lowe Dickinson 
58. After Easter - poem by Mary Lowe Dickinson 
59. A letter from Grandpa about Easter eggs and ducks  
60. Easter Sacraments - poem by Henry Park Schauffler
61. The Resurrection, Or Easter Day - poem by George Herbert
62. Easter  - poem by George Herbert
63. The Easter Joy - poem by Margaret E. Sangster
64. Seek Those Things Which Are Above - poem by William Newell
65. Woman's Easter - poem by Lucy Larcom
66. Day Dawn - A Quiet Talk On Easter by S. D. Gordon
67. The Crescent And The Cross - poem by Thomas Baily Aldrich
68. The Easter Message - by Charles E. Hesselgrave
69. An Easter Song - poem by Susan Coolidge
70. Egg Hunt Silhouettes and Vintage Coloring

May Day Index

Queen Guinevere's Maying, by John Collier
Read more about May Day at Wikipedia

       The first of May, or May Day, has been associated with out-of-door festivities from the days of ancient Rome. The Romans were accustomed to hold yearly processions in honor of Flora, a mythological goddess of flowers, between April 28 and May 3, and it is supposed that the beautiful village festivals of medieval England had their origin in this custom. The English maypole set up on the village green the night before May Day, was bedecked in the morning with flowers, which were brought from the woods by happy young people. Especially joyous was the beauty who was chosen queen of the May, and who honored her subjects by dancing with them around the maypole. Tennyson's May Queen gives a charming picture of this form of merry making. Dancing about the maypole is sometimes introduced very effectively into modern entertainments and school programs.

Floral Artifacts For The Celebration of Spring or May 1rst:

1. The May Queen 
2. Song to The Violet 
3. Craft your very own butterfly kite! 
4. On May Morning
5. The Coming of Spring
6. May-Baskets 

Spring Butterflies & Toads from The Easter Egg Crafts Blog:

1. Tulip Table Settings for Easter and Spring  
2. Craft a Simple Butterfly Mask 
3. Craft a Very Hungry Caterpillar  
4. Frogs, Toads and Pollywogs for Spring
5. Repeating Line Butterfly Design
6. The Living Butterfly
7. A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green and Yellow Basket 
8. Needlepoint a Basket of Violets  
9. Create a Butterfly Yarn Picture
10. "Handy" little butterflies
11. Drawing Butterflies Through Five Progressive Steps 
12. Craft Doily Butterflies 

May Day Coloring Sheets:

1. Dancing around a Maypole and The May Pole Dance
2. Happy May Day! from printables4kids
3. Maypole Dancing On May Day Coloring Pages from tocolor.pics

May Day Crafts from Around The Web:

• May Day craft collection from DLTK's
• DIY Beautiful Curly Paper Flowers
• May Day Woven Basket
• Wrap a yarn covered bottle for paper flowers 
• 3D or three dimensional paper vases with flowers
• Paper roll Spring flowers craft

 A Maypole Dance performed at 

The School in Rose Valley by students

The May Queen

The May Queen 

by Lord Alfred  Tennyson

YOU must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;   
To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad new-year,--  
Of all the glad new-year, mother, the maddest, merriest day;   
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.   

I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake,   
If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break;           
But I must gather knots of flowers and buds, and garlands gay;   
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.       

The night-winds come and go, mother, upon the meadow-grass,   
And the happy stars above them seem to brighten as they pass;   
There will not be a drop of rain the whole of the livelong day;           
And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.   

So you must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;   
To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad new-year;   
To-morrow 'll be of all the year the maddest, merriest day,   
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.

Practice drawing with the use of a grid...

Grid superimposed on top of a sketch of horse and cat.

ENLARGING AND REDUCING PICTURES.

       A simple picture may be enlarged by means of clots and dotted lines to guide the eye, as shown on the next page, where we have a number of compound curves applied to vase forms, which are to be reproduced the same size below and enlarged on the opposite page. If, however, the picture is not a single figure, but contains a large amount of detail, it is best to enlarge it by means of squares, as shown just left. To do this, take the original, and divide it into a number of squares, as shown in the small figure. If the picture is desired twice as long as the original make a square twice its dimensions, or, if it is to be reduced and it is desired to have it only half the length of the copy, then the square should be made only one-half the dimensions of the original. For instance, Fig. above, left is a small picture, which measures two and one-half inches long by two inches wide. We want a picture five inches long, consequently, we draw a square twice the dimensions of the small picture, or five inches long by four inches wide. This large square is now divided into five squares in length by four squares in width, or just the same number as have been made on the copy, but, of course, those are proportionately smaller.
       The eye and hand now have a guide, and by noting the relative position of the outlines in the original to the corners and edges of the squares, and by carefully following this guide an enlarged picture, correctly proportioned, may be made.
       In placing the details of the picture care should be taken to place correctly in the enlarged picture according to their position in the copy. If the eye of the horse is in the corner of a square in the small picture, a correspondingly large one should be similarly placed in the enlarged picture. The cat's tail extends to the upper line of the third row of squares in the original, and should do the same in the reproduction. In drawing the horse's ears, note the proportion of the small square that is covered by them, and by following the same proportions in the large square, they may be accurately enlarged.
       To reduce a picture, make a square the size desired; divide it into squares, and the copy into the same number of squares. This will furnish a guide by which any large picture may be accurately reduced to the size desired, the same as in enlarging. Practice on the pictures given, on loose paper, and do not attempt to reproduce on the pages left in this book until creditable work can be done. Cline

Above you can see the sample grid drawings that I've made from pictures cut and laminated from magazines.
Students may use these to practice enlarging and reducing images on grids during free drawing time in the art classroom.