Each year for St. Patricks day we make leprechaun traps! The legend goes, if you can trap a leprechaun he has to share some gold with you! Leading up to this we read a great book called "A Leprechaun in the basement" and talked about how leprechauns are the "wee folk" that make shoes for the "fairy folk" in Ireland. We listened to Irish music while doing schoolwork, Mason worked with St.Patrick's day 3 part cards, and we made my grandmother's Irish soda bread (mmmmmmmmmmmm). We had their cousin sleep over the weekend before and all 4 kids got to work using out recycling to build their traps! They painted rocks yellow then rolled them in gold glitter to make fake gold to trick the leprechaun!
The little sign says "climb this ladder" Mason theory was that the leprechaun would not follow the rules and climb the other ladder...at the top of the other ladder will be the gold rock and a false top so he would fall in. A lesson learned from last year was to make the ladder wider than the top so he could not use the ladder to escape (like he did last year)
My theory was to place the gold rock on top of a string holding up a basket, hoping when he lifts the rock the basket would fall.
James....what can I say he had fun gluing everything together!!
So in the end, we did not catch that tricky leprechaun, but he left us each some gold chocolate coins in our traps, and that mischievous "wee folk' turned pictures, dishes and toys upside down! He even changed the toilet water green!
Mason spent the morning designing next years bigger better trap, which includes a sensor trigger door to a castle!...better luck next year!
What a brilliant idea... We live in Ireland and I will definitely try to "catch" a leprechaun with the preschool children and my own kids next year!
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