It’s March, which means if you have elementary school-aged kids, you are probably thinking about how to top last year’s leprechaun trap. This is one of my kids’ favorite activities. Once I let go of the idea that I had to help to make it perfect, it became an enjoyable activity for me too. It’s fun to see how their creative minds work, as they plan and put together these traps. One of the best things about this activity is that you don’t necessarily need to buy anything for it. Sure, I usually get a few things: some of those gold coins or some green construction paper or paint, but generally, I just let the kids find whatever they can around the house to make their trap. We have used boxes sized from cereal boxes to shoe boxes to amazon boxes. If you’re looking for some ideas, here are some of my favorites:
- Stairway to Treasure
Materials:
- A box (any size works)
- Something glittery
- Something to make stairs (popsicle sticks, pieces of wood or cardboard, legos)
- Optional: green paint or construction paper
- Optional: Markers or paint
For this trap, we spray painted a box green and covered half of the opening with green construction paper. On top of the construction paper, we glued some gold coins. We put another handful of gold coins in the bottom to help lure the leprechaun into the box. Then, we painted pieces of cardboard in the colors of the rainbow and glued them together to create stairs. Once the glue dried, we attached the stairs to the box, and voila! Leprechauns are mischievous and love doing what they are told not to do, so you could also create a sign saying “Do Not Enter” or “No Leprechauns Allowed” to try to attract their attention!
- Obstacle Course
Materials:
- A box (any size works)
- Something to create a maze of obstacle course (pipe cleaners, straws, toothpicks)
- Optional: green or rainbow color paint or construction paper
For this trap, we put a piece of construction paper over the opening of the box. On the top of the construction paper, we used straws to make a maze for the leprechaun to follow. The sign at the start of the maze told him he would find gold at the finish. About 1/3 of the way through the maze, we cut a flap in the construction paper so he would fall through and to the bottom of the box. You’ll also need a way for the leprechaun to get up to the start of the maze, We tried stairs, a ladder, and a rope, but eventually, we went with the ladder, which we created out of popsicle sticks.
- A “Safe” Hiding Place
Materials:
- A shoe box with the lid
- Something glittery
- A stick or straw to prop the box open
- Optional: markers, construction paper, and green or rainbow colored things to decorate
We started by covering a shoe box, including the lid, with green construction paper. The kids decorated the outside of the box with rainbows and a sign that said it was a safe home for a leprechaun. We then turned the box upside down and propped it open by putting a chopstick at the end to hold up the bottom of the box. In the lid, we put a pot of gold coins at the very back and then covered the rest of the lid with anything green we could find in the house: fake grass, pom poms, and pipe cleaners. Then we attached a string from the pit of gold to the chopstick so that when the leprechaun grabbed the gold, the chopstick would fall, collapsing the box around him.
- Leprechaun Club
Materials:
- A box
- Lots of color and glittery objects
- Double sided tape
We used a bigger amazon box for this trap, but any size box will work. We turned the box on its side so the opening was at floor level for the leprechauns. The outside of the box was decorated in green and gold and had a sign that said: “Leprechaun Club”. The inside was decorated with lots of color and glitter. On the floor of the box, we put double sided tape. The kids drew a DJ station and hung multicolored streamers over the opening of the box for a grand entrance into the club. Once the leprechauns stepped inside, they would be caught by the tape and trapped until morning! Unfortunately, our smart leprechauns figured out how to get out of the trap, but we all heard them partying while we were trying to sleep.
- Swimming Pool
Materials:
- A shoe box
- Blue tissue paper
- Something to create a diving board (popsicle sticks, pieces of cardboard, legos)
- Something to create a ladder (legos, popsicle sticks, straws, pipe cleaners)
For this trap, we used a taller box with the opening at the top. We created a ladder out of multicolored pipe cleaners and glued it to the side of the box so the leprechauns could climb up. We then used popsicle sticks to create a diving board. We covered the opening of the box with blue tissue paper. The theory was once the leprechaun dove in, he would break the paper, and fall to the bottom of the box, trapped!
Whatever you do this year, don’t forget to have fun with it. Happy trapping!
