Trap a Leprechaun this St. Patrick's Day!
by Shannon McMath
There are special make believe characters that go hand in hand with some holidays. There’s Santa Claus on Christmas, The Easter Bunny on Easter and, of course, Leprechauns on St. Patrick’s Day. Your children may have seen Santa and the Bunny, but have they seen a Leprechaun? This St. Patrick's Day, why not try to catch one? Building this Leprechaun Trap will definitely become a family tradition.
Obviously, you and I know you can never catch a Leprechaun - they’re just too tricky. But if you’re clever enough and give them a treat, they just might thank you with a gold coin or two. This is a great family project that everyone can get involved in. It’s so much fun, you’ll want to keep your trap and use it year after year!
What You Need:
- 40 regular popsicle sticks
- 10 colored popsicle sticks – if you don’t have colored ones, you can use markers or paint
- 3 wooden hearts and half a popsicle stick
- Green marker
- Glue
- Lucky Charms cereal
What the “Leprechaun” Needs:
- Chocolate Gold Coins
- Green Paint
How You Make It:
- The first thing to do is to build the walls of the box for the trap. Start gluing 4 popsicle sticks into a square shape. Then continue adding sticks in a log cabin fashion until you’ve used up all 40 sticks.
- Now your box needs a lid. Arrange the 10 colored popsicle sticks on top of the walls in a rainbow pattern (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple) to make a cover. Since Leprechauns are attracted to rainbows, this will help lure one to the trap!
- Another idea to help lure the Leprechaun is to put a shamrock on top of the box you’ve made. Take the 3 wooden hearts and the half popsicle stick and make them green either with markers or paint. When they are dry, glue them on, making them look like a shamrock.
- Next you’ll need to set the trap. Find a spot where you think Leprechauns will most likely come out to dance in the moonlight on St. Patrick’s Day. A bed of clover is ideal or you can pick some clover and set up the trap in your house. Be sure to add a trail of Lucky Charms Marshmallows as bait!
- After your child goes to bed, remove all of the Lucky Charms and replace them with chocolate gold coins. Remove the stick that is propping up the box and then use the green paint and your pinky finger to leave tiny Leprechaun footprints. When morning comes on March 18th, have your child check the trap and find the clues that prove Leprechauns do exist!
Variations
There are many ways to make a Leprechaun trap. To make this a fun classroom activity, set out a collection of craft materials, recyclables, and art supplies and tell the students to make a Leprechaun trap. After everyone is done, ask each student why they think their trap will work the best. This is a great imagination building project!
Shannon McMath lives in Northern California and enjoys spending time with her daughter engaging in crafts of all kinds. Having earned a degree in Art & Design from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, she has learned to recognize the role that creativity plays in our society, and also how important it is to foster creativity in children.
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Posted by Angie on Mar 8, 2009 9:37 am