St. Patrick’s Day is a day of tales and whimsy. And nothing is more whimsical and fun than the cute little green men who hide their gold at the end of the rainbow. That’s right, the leprechauns. This year have a little fun and adventure trying to catch one of the little buggers. Set a leprechaun trap and watch your child’s creativity run wild.
Materials:
- Large piece of cardboard
- Razor cutter or scissors
- A shoebox with a lid
- Craft glue
- Green paint
- Stickers, pre-made rainbows and other decoration
- Gold paint and/or glitter
- sticks, craft sticks or wooden skewers cut to these lengths, (2) 6-inch pieces and (8) 1-inch pieces
- small pot or container
- Shiny coins, jewelry, treasure or even Lucky Charms cereal
- Small pillow(s) or soft fabric to line the inside of your box
Instructions:
- Cut a large shamrock shape out of the cardboard. Make sure that it is big enough to house your shoebox with at least a 3-inch buffer all the way around.
- Put shoebox lid in place on top of the shoebox. Draw a 2×2 inch square on the lid next to the front edge. Cut 3 sides of the square, leaving one edge in tact.
- Center your hat or shoebox in the middle of the shamrock cutout. Glue it down to the cardboard.
- Paint shamrock, shoebox and lid green. Decorate with gold paint, glitter, stickers and other decorations.
- Fill your pot or container with coins, treasure, Lucky Charms or other goodies. Reserve a few goodies to use as bait. Place your pot on top of the shoebox lid. Glue it in place if you are going to be moving your trap around.
- Glue sticks or skewers together to assemble a ladder. Lean the ladder against the shoebox, making sure that the top of the ladder lines up with the trap door. Glue the top the ladder to the shoebox and the bottom of the ladder to your shamrock cut out.
- Glue down a trail of goodies or coins that lead to your pot.
- When a leprechaun follows your trail to the goody pot, he will climb up the ladder and fall through the trap door when he reaches the top! Be sure to put something soft inside to cushion his fall.
