Make Your Own Leprechaun Trap! A St. Patrick’s Day Craft

The first year my son was in Kindergarten, the entire school created their own leprechaun traps to place in the classrooms. At the end of the day, the children set up their traps to see if they could catch an actual leprechaun.

But you don’t have to just do it with school. You can make your own leprechaun trap with your toddlers! And even though my elementary-age kids were making a trap for school, they absolutely loved making an additional one for home.

Will they catch an actual leprechaun. Well, that’s doubtful. But I do think some extra goodies will be left behind by the leprechaun that was too crafty to be caught! This post contains affiliate links.

How to Make Your Own Leprechaun Trap

Making a leprechaun trap doesn’t have to be difficult. You just have to have imagination!

Materials You’ll Want to Make Your Own Leprechaun Trap:

• Shoe Box
• Scissors
• Glue/Tape
• String
• Anything green — Green tape, Green Shamrocks, Green Bead Necklaces, Green Feathers, Green Straws, Green Gems. You name it, you can add it to the trap.
• Gold Coins — because, let’s face it, kids LOVE the coins.

In order to make the trap, first ask your child to think about how they would like to make a trap. Let them lead the discussion. Kids come up with the most creative ways to trap a leprechaun.

Let your child decide how to set up and decorate the trap. It doesn’t have to be pretty. This is their masterpiece, after all. If you want, go ahead and make your own leprechaun trap.

My younger son, Hbomb, really didn’t want to work with glue, so he taped all of the gems onto the box. It works for him, and that’s all that matters. We used green masking tape to cover up the sides of the box and fun Scotch Expressions tape to decorate the top.

We also had a box of Yelp mints on hand, which he decided were perfect to put on the box. Hbomb thought it would attract the leprechaun that much more.

Ask your child to explain their trap. Boy, do I wish I had a video camera going to get the explanations on tape. They were absolutely precious!

Hbomb made a little hole in the side of the box. He thought the leprechaun would see the shamrock and gold inside and just have to climb in. But then the leprechaun wouldn’t be able to get the coins up (which are secured down by the glittery shamrock stickers) and refuse to leave without his treasure.

My elementary-age son, Vman, decided to create a trap door for the leprechaun. The leprechaun will see the gold coins and gems on the side of the box and think that it is a jewel mine. He’ll crawl through the little opening and knock the straw loose, closing the top of the box.

Vman put tape on top of the gold coins so if the leprechaun tried to grab them, his hands would get stuck. Also, being the considerate boy that he is, Vman added a couch of green pom-poms. But, if the leprechaun lays down, he’ll get stuck from the rolled up tape. Oh, what a devious plan!

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