Celebrate St. Patrick's Day: Name Project

St. Patrick’s Day is a little extra special in our household since we’re Irish (or partially) and our names are very Irish as well! So today we learned a little more about what our names mean, created an art piece, explored some history of Ireland, and even called Grandma and Grandpa for a story telling hour and Q/A.

FIONA

Our daughter’s name is Fiona, which in Gaelic means fair-skinned or beautiful. And no, it’s not because we really liked the movie Shrek, although that’s one of her favorite movies.

DYLAN

Our son’s name is Dylan, which means “a flash of lightning” (very appropriate if you knew him) or faithful/loyal. It was actually on both of our baby name lists, so it was meant to be.

STEP 1: Rainbow Paint

First I wrote each one of their names in crayon on a piece of watercolor paper. Then we painted rainbows over their names. The wax from the crayon resisted the paint so it didn’t get wet. After it dried we scratched off the name again to make brighter too.

STEP 2: Weave Irish Flag

Next we weaved together construction paper using the colors from the Irish flag (Green, Orange, White). We added yellow too since we were low on white. :) Then we taped down the weavings on the back so they wouldn’t slide down, and we attached 2 of them together. This would be the mat for our name painting.

STEP 3: Name Meanings

We attempted to find words in magazines that were similar to the meaning of our name, but no luck. So instead we wrote the words out and glued them on the paper. For our first grader, this was helpful so as she showed off her art to Grandpa and Grandpa she could recite the words.

STEP 4: Assemble Together

Last we glued it all down, cut out our name into a shape and put it up on the wall for all to see! A bright and beautiful display of our special names on our special holiday. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!