St. Patrick's Day Ideas: Homemade Leprechaun Trap

Catch a bit o' luck with this St. Patrick's Day snare.

Submitted by
Kayla Chong

Legend has it that if you catch a leprechaun, he has to give up his pot of gold. Let your kid in on this little fable and invite her to build a leprechaun trap out of a shoebox and a stick. No, she's not really going to end up with a pot of gold, but occupying your kid for an hour with this St. Patrick's Day idea will be worth its weight in gold to you.

Trap maker:
Your kid.
Leprechaun:
That's you.
Shoebox:
Without the lid.
A long stick:
About double the size of the shoebox.
Green construction paper:
Enough to cover the shoebox.
Embellishments:
Like shamrock and rainbow stickers, glitter and markers.
Glue or tape
Scissors
A treat:
Something small the leprechaun will leave behind, like candy, stickers or a small toy. It needs to fit inside the shoebox, so for this St. Patrick's Day idea, save the scooter for your kid's birthday!

Grab an old adult-sized shoebox and help your kid cover it in green construction paper. Use glue or tape to keep it in place.
Next, have her decorate the box to make it enticing enough to attract a leprechaun. She can draw shamrocks all over it or put rainbow stickers on it so the leprechaun comes snooping around for a pot of gold.
When the trap is finished, head outside and help your kid find a long, thick stick to hold the trap up with. The stick needs to be thick enough to stand up straight and support the edge of the box. If you can find a stick with a "Y" shaped end, that's even better. In fact, you could make the stick hunt all about finding a Y-shaped stick and eat up even more activity time.
The night before St. Patrick's Day, help her set it up on the front stoop or by the fireplace. Turn the box upside-down and prop it open with the stick. (Think of old-school rabbit traps, like when Elmer Fudd tied a string to the stick and then pulled on it so that a box would fall on top of Bugs Bunny when he went under it to get the carrots.)
When your kid goes to bed, place a little treat under the box and trip the trap by knocking out the stick.
When your kid wakes up, she'll see that the trap has caught something and will rush to find her leprechaun. We doubt she'll be disappointed in only finding a pile of candy under the box, but if she demands an explanation, tell her the leprechaun was caught, but he's a wily little fellow and somehow escaped, leaving his "treasures" behind. His loss is her gain.
Put the box away and have her try to trap him again next year.