Create a Leprechaun Trap with Children for St. Patrick's Day

We all know the story of the leprechaun and his hidden gold. The gold was said to be left behind by the Danes that invaded England and Ireland many centuries ago. The leprechauns have made themselves the appointed guardians of that ancient gold. It is said if a mortal catches a leprechaun he or she is obligated to tell you where the gold is hidden, in exchange for their freedom. They are very tricky though and it takes a special bate to lure them into a trap and an even more clever person to keep them there until they release the treasure they have hidden. Leprechauns are known to be real pranksters too and are not beyond doing a trick or two of their own to foil your efforts to catch them.

This is a fun project to do at home with your own children or with students at school. Begin the project with a little history lesson about St. Patrick's Day and the legend of the leprechaun. If you have a book to read about it, that is even better.

Ask the child or children to draw up an idea of what their leprechaun trap may look like. Encourage them to talk about their ideas.

Let them bring in supplies from home or provide them with some. Try to use things you already have around the house or classroom from which to pick and create their own version of the trap. I have seen children use everything from cigar boxes, shoe boxes and tissue boxes to ornate creations made of building blocks, styrofoam packing materials to cardboard toilet paper rolls, everything glued, taped, pasted or stuck together. They can be as simple or ornate as they wish. This is a fun project to work on together, but allow the child to take the lead and let his or her own imagination free to create this project.

There has to be some way to trap the leprechaun and a lure to get him into the trap. For bait we have used old pieces of costume jewelry, chocolate coins, real coins, fake jewels, food, leprechaun figures, mirrors and so forth. It is fun to let the children decide what might be valuable enough or tricky enough to a leprechaun to lure him, unknowingly, into a trap.

Set the traps up around the classroom or if this is done at home, let your child pick a place they feel is the best one to set their trap up whether it is inside or out. Put it out on St. Patrick's Day or the night before.

When this was done at our local school, the children returned to the class the next day and much to their delight the leprechaun had been there. Each child checked their individual trap to see if the leprechaun had been caught only to find the room and traps in disarray. Chairs and other objects in the room were turned over or out of place, papers strewn around the room, waste basket turned over, some desks messed up, traps sprung, but not a leprechaun to be found anywhere. There were other signs of him having been there. There was green fairy dust sprinkled here and there, actually green glitter, golden foil wrapped chocolate coins left in each child's trap, bits of green fabric stuck in a few of the traps as if his wee coat had been caught and he had to pull away to get away from the trap and bits of green grass or clover strewn here or there. Finally there was a message written across the chalkboard saying that they may be clever but he was more clever still and they would have to try harder the next time to outwit him. The children were totally enthralled with the whole project and had fun examining each others traps to see what each had created and what had been left behind. They enjoyed seeing their normally organized classroom left in such a messy state by the little person who had come to call and they went home with a good story to share with their respective families.