My kids love the book The Night Before St. Patrick's Day
by Natasha Wing which is a twist on the classic "Night Before Christmas" poem. In the book, the children make various traps to try to "catch" a leprechaun. We have fun with this tradition as well. You can see some of our past leprechaun traps here and here. Last year, we made some simple leprechaun traps inspired by those in the book:
We also made a second leprechaun trap with a linking cube tower, topped by a toilet paper tube that we covered with green paper and St. Patrick's Day stickers. A homemade popsicle-stick ladder led up to the tube that had a tempting necklace hanging from it, and it led to a cup covered with shamrock stickers and another fake coin in the bottom.
This was inspired by the Lego/tin can/toilet paper tube trap shown in the illustration from the book above. It was fun to try to bring these "leprechaun traps" from the book to life. The next day, the traps were upset, and a little treat was left for the kids. I usually leave the kids chocolate gold coins from a pretend leprechaun. You can find gold coins at Trader Joe's, Party City, or sometimes the dollar store. We also like to throw a few things in our house topsy turvy as if a leprechaun has been making mischief. We hang toys from the ceiling fans, turn the kids' chairs upside down, and more. It doesn't take much to have a little fun and make a little magic with your kids. More ideas for leprechaun mischief can be found here.
Last year, one of our children was in the hospital with pneumonia on St. Patrick's Day, and he even made his own little trap out of things we were able to scrounge around the hospital. His trap was made from a styrofoam cup and pieces of paper he colored. The papers were all taped on his trap with medical tape the nurse gave us.
It taught us that you don't have to have something fancy or elaborate to have fun! Being sick in the hospital was miserable for him, but a special note from a "leprechaun" and a package of M & M's did wonders, cheering up this sick little boy on St. Patrick's Day morning.
For more St. Patrick's Day ideas, see our collection of previous posts here or my Pinterest board here!
by Natasha Wing which is a twist on the classic "Night Before Christmas" poem. In the book, the children make various traps to try to "catch" a leprechaun. We have fun with this tradition as well. You can see some of our past leprechaun traps here and here. Last year, we made some simple leprechaun traps inspired by those in the book:
The first trap we made was based on the picture of a trap above that was on a hanger. We didn't have a collapsible vegetable steamer as it looks like the kids used in the book, so we just use a coffee filter (I buy packs of filters at the dollar store to use for crafts), that we hole punched and tied to the hanger with colorful yarn.
Inside we put some pretend gold coins to lure the leprechaun!
We also made a second leprechaun trap with a linking cube tower, topped by a toilet paper tube that we covered with green paper and St. Patrick's Day stickers. A homemade popsicle-stick ladder led up to the tube that had a tempting necklace hanging from it, and it led to a cup covered with shamrock stickers and another fake coin in the bottom.
Last year, one of our children was in the hospital with pneumonia on St. Patrick's Day, and he even made his own little trap out of things we were able to scrounge around the hospital. His trap was made from a styrofoam cup and pieces of paper he colored. The papers were all taped on his trap with medical tape the nurse gave us.
For more St. Patrick's Day ideas, see our collection of previous posts here or my Pinterest board here!
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