No St. Patrick's Day celebration is complete without a mischievous leprechaun. These child-sized creatures store their pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. Irish lore reports that if a leprechaun is captured by a human, the leprechaun grants three wishes so that he can be released. Your first grader will enjoy creating his very own leprechaun from a recycled toilet paper tube. Just allow time for the paint and glue to dry between steps.
What You Need:
- 1-2 toilet paper tubes
- Green paint
- Paintbrush
- Skin colored paint
- Black marker
- Scissors
- Green construction paper
- Reddish brown yarn
- Black construction paper
- Yellow construction paper
What You Do:
- Help your child paint the toilet paper tube Irish green. Let dry.
- Assist your child in cutting a 2 3/4 inch diameter circle from the green construction paper. This will become the brim of the leprechaun’s hat.
- Help your child cut a 1 3/4 inch hole in the center in the green construction paper circle you just cut.
- Slide the hat brim a little over an inch down the painted toilet paper roll. You might have to tinker with the width of the hole to fit your particular toilet paper roll.
- Have your child paint a skin colored face beneath the face, a little over an inch long.
- If you have a second toilet paper tube, cut two 1 1/2 inch long arms from the roll.
- Have your child paint the ends of the arms with the skin colored paint.
- If you don’t have a second toilet paper roll, you can cut arms from green construction paper.
- Ask your child cut a 5 1/2 inch long belt from the black construction paper. It should be about a 1/3 inch thick.
- Help your child construct a 3/4 inch gold belt buckle from the yellow construction paper.
- Glue the belt and buckle on the leprechaun.
- Put green construction paper over the arms you painted.
- Glue arms on the leprechaun’s body.
- Cut a two or three 1 1/2 inch pieces of the reddish brown yarn and glue under the leprechaun’s head for his hairline.
- Cut fourteen or so 1 inch pieces of yarn for the leprechaun’s beard.
- Help your child glue beard pieces under face. Let dry.
- Trim leprechaun’s beard.
Your child might want to place his leprechaun over a chocolate gold coin. If you and your child are feeling industrious, you could make a set of these for a St. Patrick’s Day Feast. They would look great next to a glass of green milk.
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