Our kids always come home from school talking about trapping a leprechaun when St. Patrick’s Day is near. They get so excited about it and really enjoy making the leprechaun trap in class. So, we decided to start trying to “trap” a leprechaun at home too. We have made a few different types of traps but, this one is pretty easy and super fun.

Materials:

• A Box (shoe box or cereal boxes work great)
• Construction Paper (rainbow colors and especially green)
• Leprechaun Bait (check out this fun food bait recipe from chaosandwine.com)
• Glue or Tape (hot glue works great)
• Cotton Balls
• Scissors
• Markers
• Stickers (optional for extra bling)

Build It:

First, help your child cover the box with green paper and decorate it any way they want to. Use the construction paper to make shapes, stick on stickers, or use the markers to color on it.

Now, cut a “trap door” in the top of the box. Be sure not to fully cut out the square. You don’t want a hole.

Then, cut strips of colored construction paper in rainbow colors and tape one end to the left bottom side of the box. Curl them around and tape the left side of the top. Glue your cotton balls on the ends (like clouds) to cover the taped areas. See below picture.

Lastly, place a small pile of your “bait” near the trap door with a little construction paper sign pointing to it. It can be whatever type of sign you would like. I like to stick our sign to a toothpick or popsicle stick and easily poke it into the box.

Boom! Your leprechaun trap is ready to catch a leprechaun. If you want to really have fun with it, remove the bait after the kids are asleep and leave a realistic piece of gold behind. You can even put a small hole in to corner of the box to show how the leprechaun escaped. Happy trapping!

If you are interested in doing more crafts with the kids, check out my post on three easy crafts the kids will love.

-Kristy M., Mommy to Many