Build a Leprechaun Trap
Learning about leprechauns is a fun way to bring Irish folklore to life. Before St. Patrick’s Day, you can build a leprechaun trap with your children and bait it with gold jewelry, candy coins and other treasure. This creative craft can be decorated, built and illustrated according to any age and skill level.
Contents
Steps
Learning About Leprechauns
- Teach your children about leprechauns in Irish folklore several weeks before St. Patrick’s Day; it will be a big help.
- For example, leprechauns are believed to be very short and wear green.
- They have a treasure hidden under a rainbow. The treasure is said to be gold coins.
- They are mischievous tricksters, who can slip through your fingers quickly.
- Read them a story, like “The Leprechaun Trap” or “The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day” by Natasha Wing.
- Tell your children why it might be a good idea to catch a leprechaun. Legends say that if you catch a leprechaun, they will trade their treasure for their freedom.
- Suggest that leprechauns usually come to visit your house on St. Patrick’s Day each year.
- Some parents set out bowls of coins and candy or leave green footprints in the house to show the leprechaun visited.
- Brainstorm ways you could catch a leprechaun. The best leprechaun traps are those that a child has helped to imagine. This project has many variations, based on the age level and preferences of the child.
Picking a Trap
- Choose an old round oatmeal box, if you want to make a leprechaun hat trap. The hat can work like a pit, so when the leprechaun jumps on the top to get his gold, he falls through.
- Remove the bottom of the cylinder, so that it is open on both sides.
- Buy some green, black and gold felt to cover the cylinder, so that it looks like a cloth-covered hat. Glue it in place on the cylinder or use double-sided tape.
- Fashion a brim from a circular strip of felt. Glue it to the bottom of the cylinder.
- Cut a circle of felt that will lay over the top of the hat, creating a false bottom.
- Use a shoebox. You can use a shoebox to create a more traditional box trap, held up by a stick or pencil.
- Decorate the shoebox with construction paper, felt or gold foil to attract the leprechaun’s attention.
- Affix the decorations with glue or double-sided tape.
- You can create a shoebox that looks like a rocky cliff in Ireland, a leprechaun hotel, an Irish pub or a rainbow. Ask your child what they think will attract the leprechaun most.
- Make a leprechaun cage. In place of a box, make a large rainbow from poster board.
- Make the rainbow about 1 foot (30cm) tall.
- Glue the poster board onto a cardboard base so that it will be freestanding.
- Glue a wire hanger to the back of the poster board. You will use this to hang the trap.
- Find a green tomato or berry basket to use as the trap.
Decorating the Trap
- Encourage your child to decorate the entire area where the trap is located. Find a freestanding table or corner of the room in which it can be placed the night before.
- Lay down a large piece of construction paper or a disposable tablecloth that your child can decorate.
- Use glitter on the box and around the area. Choose gold glitter to signify gold.
- If you don’t want the glitter to be freestanding, spray some glue on the paper, felt or tablecloth and let the child shake glitter onto the area.
- Shake off the excess glitter onto another piece of paper or in the trashcan.
- Decorate the bait. Find or make gold coins.
- Have your child draw gold coins, color them in with a yellow marker and cut them out to use as bait.
- Opt for gold covered chocolates. Coin-shaped chocolates are usually sold in grocery stores around St. Patrick’s Day.
- Find a miniature basket at a craft store. Place coins or other treats inside to entice the leprechaun.
- Add a rainbow to the scene.
- Have your child draw a rainbow and set it near the trap.
- You can also create a rainbow out of different colored pipe cleaners. Glue them in an arch around the entrance to the trap.
- Use cotton balls for clouds. Stretch apart several cotton balls to cover the ends of the rainbow and the entrance to the cage or trap.
- Glue them together lightly with paste.
Setting the Trap
- Make a pit trap, if you are using an oatmeal container.
- Place some straw on a table. This can be used to cushion the leprechaun’s fall.
- Cover the straw with your cylindrical hat.
- Place a circle of felt over the top of the hat.
- Put very light bait in the center of the felt, such as paper coins or a pipe cleaner rainbow.
- Make signs for the leprechaun, telling him where the gold is, if you want to decorate it more.
- Fix a box trap, if you are using a shoebox.
- Place your bait on a table.
- Attach a string to the bait.
- Cover the bait with your shoebox.
- Prop up the box with a stick or a pencil.
- Tie the bait string to the bottom of the pencil. If the leprechaun moves the bait, the pencil will be pulled back and the box will fall on the little guy.
- Do several practice tries to ensure it works well.
- Create a cage trap, if you are using a poster board rainbow.
- Place your rainbow and its stand on your table.
- Attach a long string to your cage. Double knot it so it is secure.
- Wrap the other end of the string around your wire hanger and pull down. The cage should lift as you pull the string.
- Extend the string down below your cage. Hold it in place with your index finger.
- Place the gold coins or basket on top of the string. It has to be even and heavy enough to hold it down.
- Test the cage by pulling back the bait. The cage should fall down onto the same spot.
Enjoying the Trap
- Set the trap the night before St. Patrick’s Day.
- Place it far enough away that you can make changes to it without your child seeing.
- Decide how you want to change the trap in the night. The following are good options.
- Leave a small shoe underneath the cage. Put several single tracks leading away.
- Leave a note from the leprechaun telling the children how he got away.
- Leave a token, like candy, from the leprechaun for letting him get away.
- Choose another creative way to help your children enjoy the trap in the morning.
Things You'll Need
- Leprechaun books/lore
- Oatmeal container
- Shoebox
- Poster board
- Cardboard
- Wire hanger
- Berry basket
- Coloring crayons/markers
- Felt
- Glue
- Double-sided tape
- Spray glue
- Glitter
- Cotton balls
- Pipe cleaners
- String
- Pencil
- Straw
- Disposable tablecloth
