St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Trap #3 and Treasure Hunt

My kids love our annual tradition of creating a leprechaun trap and pretending to try to catch a leprechaun for St. Patrick's Day.

Here is the Leprechaun trap my four-year-old designed last year. It is made from a Lucky Charms cereal box that we added green paint to. Then, we created a ladder from barbecue skewers and chenille stems that led up to a trap door that we cut in the box. We added a leprechaun hat, green beads, and a trail of gold coins to entice the leprechaun. My son drew a rainbow picture that we taped above the trap to further lure the leprechaun.

We did not succeed in catching a leprechaun, but the leprechaun did leave behind a shamrock note with a clue leading to a treasure. The clues were very simple for my young kids--such as "look in the place where you keep the milk," or "look under the place where you rest your head at night." The kids followed the clues around the house on a treasure hunt--each clue was written on a shamrock and hidden in a different spot. Finally, they found the "pot of gold"--some gold Rolo candies, M & M's, and rainbow colored markers inside a rice pot of ours.

And if you are like me and always like to pair a picture book with your activities, here is a fun picture book to go along with this tradition:

The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing.

 In the book some kids spend the night before St. Patrick's Day setting Leprechaun traps, and they actually succeed in catching a leprechaun, but he outwits them.

For more St. Patrick's Day ideas, see other leprechaun traps here and here, all of our previous St. Patrick's Day posts here, or check out my St. Patrick's Day Pinterest Board.

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