March is crazy busy this year. This week I have both kids’ birthdays and my wedding anniversary to celebrate! Then Easter at the end of the month…I kinda feel like one of my favorite holidays is getting the shaft: St. Patrick’s Day! Do you have any St. Patrick’s Day traditions? We always have a green pancake breakfast, complete with green milk and anything else kids will eat if dyed green. Today I want to share another idea – a kids craft with a little science mixed in! It’s perfect for St. Patty’s since pennies can be lucky…
1. Stir 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 cup of white vinegar together in a small bowl.
Drop 5 pennies in and count to ten while they soak.
2. Take the pennies out and rinse well in clean water. (We just dunked them in a separate water bowl.)
3. Let the pennies dry on a paper towel.
I like to ask the kids questions while we experiment : such as, “What do you think will happen when we put the pennies in?” “What are pennies made out of?” With young ages it’s all about exploring. We don’t get into too much scientific reasoning 🙂
This is really all about shine. It won’t take a brown penny to a brand-new copper penny. Still, the kids had a great time and since there are no harsh chemicals I felt comfortable having even my littlest help out. Here is a fun before/after – we held pennies just halfway in the solution for 15-20 seconds and rinsed. I loved seeing the difference!
We wanted to make something with all our shiny pennies, so I grabbed what I had on hand. An old 4×6 frame, scrapbooking paper (DCWV) and stickers (American Crafts).
Here’s one of our favorites:
What a cute and fun idea for kids!
Such a cute and fun idea!!! Love it!
Thanks so much for sharing this! I wanted to do something for St. Patrick’s Day with my three year old. I was looking for something fun and easy, since he doesn’t really understand St. Patty’s Day yet. This was perfect! He loves finding pennies (even though he calls all change “pennies”) and he had a blast making them shiny. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! It’s so nice to hear that someone uses an idea (especially one I thought maybe no one would like) and it works! Hope you had a great St. Patty’s Day!