I need a leprechaun trap!

[Fionasmommy]

Seriously!

I've never heard of them, but apparently it's something we're meant to make and bring to school and if the kids are lucky, a leprechaun will visit during the night.

DD's teacher didn't give us any instructions, so I have no idea where to start with this! Have any of you parents had to do this with your children? I would love some tips before I run out to Hobby Lobby!

 

[figment52]

A box of Lucky Charms

 

[Lanshark]

The school I teach at also has the kids make leprechaun traps. I've seen some pretty elaborate traps and also simple ones. The idea is to build a trap and bait it with "gold" or candy to try to catch a leprechaun. I had one child build a large trap out of boxes and cut a hole in the top of a box. He covered the hole with tissue and put bait on the tissue. When the leprechaun stepped on the tissue he would fall into the hole and be trapped. This boy actually put a mouse trap at the bottom of the hole but we removed it.

Another used a shoe box with a flap on it. A pencil held up the flap and when the leprechaun entered the box he would knock the pencil over and the flap would close on the leprechaun.

Yet another took a green hat and propped it up with a pencil on one end. Same idea.

 

[BelleBoo&AmisMum]

omg - ds did this in first grade and I'm still irritated about it, he's in fourth grade now btw.

We were told to use a shoe box and decorate the heck out of it, they like gold....blah blah blah. We went out bought all this St. Patricks day decorative stuff and did it up. He took it to school and came back on St. Patricks day all excited because the leprechaun came to his class. The trap was in shreds - everything was tossed around. Next time I'm sending a $3.00 box of lucky charms and hoping the dang thing has the munchies.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

http://polsellikindergarten.tripod.com/Leprechaun Traps/Leprechaun Traps 2004/Leprechaun Traps.htm

 

[2Pirates_1Princess]

My husband used the boys legos and made one for the kids. They had a lego treasure chest with "gold" in it at the end. The man was my hero for at least a week..LOL

 

[Bob Slydell]

Just let your DD have at it -- the idea is for her to be creative and act like an engineer, thinking about what she thinks would be the best way to "catch" a leprechaun. DS and his classmates have been working on theirs in school all week, tweaking it a little more everyday.

 

[Goofyluver]

My school does this. Most use shoe boxes and paint them gold. They prop the lids open with some type of stick. I have seen gold wrapped candy as bait. The best one came today...a kiddo brought in a gold painted shoebox. Inside? A green "credit card". Or a paper made to look like a credit card. The kid says when the leprechaun uses the card, the police will arrest him because it's not his, and then they'll have caught the leprechaun. I thought this was hilarious!

 

[twocjsmom]

He's in the first grade. It was assigned as a family project, but I'm letting him take the lead on it, by giving help on the little things - I wanted to see where he goes with it!

He came up with a really cool idea - rather than building an actual trap, he wanted to make a model of a "gold factory" diorama style (they just did diaromas for a science unit and he thought that was really cool) and decided that the best way to catch a Leprachaun was to send on an invitation to tour the gold factory, where there will be gold given out at the end of the tour. So far, he has made the factory out of a shoebox, and is planning on having a little pot of gold at the end of the conveyor belt, and when the Leprachaun goes to grab the gold, he would then trap him with a cage that falls from the ceiling.

I'm so proud of the little guy!

 

[Tink_Or_Belle]

do you happen to have one of those trick or treat buckets shaped like a Cauldron they make GREAT pots of gold buy some gold coins eat the candy and tape the wrappers to the edge (my youngest was a leprechaun his 1st Halloween he was only 6 months so I sat him in the huge Cauldron dressed in one of those shiny green top hats with all the gold coin wrappers way cute but not at all connected to the post)

you could put like Fly paper in the bottom or something to make it a trap

 

[DISUNC]

A box of Lucky Charms

 

["Got Disney"]

We used a shoe box and covered it in all green construction paper and than put shamrocks and gold glitter all over it...than decorated the inside also with green construction paper and glitter

next we glued gold glitter all over pennies(could not find gold coins in time) and pot them on a wide piece of tape...and taped it to the end of a stick so that it would hang down...

We used the stick to hold up the end of the box....with the coins hanngind down...so when the leproc. pulled on the string it would pull the stick out and the box over on himself...

this is the same premise as when we were younger and tied a string on the end of a string holding up a box to catch birds...

.......

it was easy..looked great and worked well....we also put some coins on the tabel just to intise the Leprechaun...it was laos fun to make because it was easy for my sons to make with me without me having to make it for them....

Good luck ....

 

[flying_babyb]

OMG I Made one last year with my preschoolers. We took a nice box and cut a hole in it. We put a big plastic pipe in the hole and taped it. THen we made a door with a trip stick (like in the cartoons, the one with the rabbit). Ours caught a leperchan who was VERY VERY VERY naughty and left leperchan turds (ok, choclate drops) on the rug. Left lots of choclate coins too, and grandmas cat (we shoulda saftey proofed our trap. Dont worry the furball was only stuck for about a hour)

 

[Corwin12]

Those poor leprechauns ... aren't there any organizations out there working to stop this cruelty?

 

[Rachie0507]

My DD's class has been working on one this week. Each class in the school is making one and the class that "catches the leprechaun" gets $50 in school supplies. DD's class made a leprechaun hotel, called the Blarney Inn. We had to send her little Barbie Jeep in to park in the parking lot! I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds cute!!

 

[Fionasmommy]

Thanks so much for all the great ideas! This was an assignment that we kept putting off , so we had to do it all last night because it was due today. We were up late, but it turned out pretty cute! It was a learning experience (Thank God for the internet!) but it was fun and DD loved all the painting and decorating.

 

[meandtheguys2]

Well, how cute!

I was thinking more along the lines of a big flat rock balanced on a little stick. Gets them every time...