Children’s Activity Parties: St.David’s Day (1 March)

February 27, 2010 by erica
Filed under children's activity parties, Family, Featured Posts, TGF Features

St.David’s Day is this month’s activity party theme. Kick things off with a craft activity. Most children will like making their own Welsh flag as it is so visually interesting, with it’s bright red dragon. You’ll need white, green and red card for this one. You need to cut out a thin rectangle of white and green card, which when sellotaped together will create the flag size that you’d like – the green piece goes on the bottom and the flag is divided horizontally. Then get your child to draw a dragon on the red card, cut round the shape and fix it to the flag. If your child doesn’t want to draw a dragon, you could print off a paper version and get them to colour one in instead – try the Data Wales website.

Another great craft project is making a daffodil. Daffodils are the Welsh national flower and are very easy to make. Cut out a segment of egg box to make the central part of the flower. You’ll need to either paint the egg box segment yellow or if you can use a yellow egg box, if you have one. Draw a simple flower shape on some yellow card and cut it out. Stick on the egg box segment and add a stalk (use a green straw, a painted green lolly stick or a green gardening cane to make a stalk). If you like you can decorate your flower with glitter, stickers, paint or crayons. They look particularly good in groups, so make a few to pop in a vase and brighten up your home.

An Eisteddfod is a fun way to introduce a little Welsh culture. Traditionally, Eisteddfods are festivals that feature poetry, music and song. You could try singing either the Welsh rugby song Sospan Fach or the rousing Men of Harlech. The words to both are easy to find online and Youtube has some clips, if you don’t know the tunes.

I’d suggest serving bara brith for your guests, but there are a number of other options: welsh rarebit, welsh cakes, etc. Every village in Wales has it’s own bara brith recipe and this one is based on a family recipe. Soak 12 oz/350gms of mixed dried fruit and 5 oz/150 gms of soft brown sugar in 10 fluid ounces/300ml of tea overnight. Stir in 8oz/225 gms of self raising flour, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Then add a beaten egg and stir well. Pour the mixture into a foil lined loaf tin and bake in the centre of an oven at 170 degrees centigrade/gas mark 3/325 degrees fahrenheit for 1.5 hours. It tastes great sliced and buttered, plus it stores well if you wrap it up in a polythene bag.