Cereal Box Leprechaun Trap

Have some magical fun with your kids this St. Patrick’s Day and build a Leprechaun Trap! According folklore, leprechauns are small, but very, very fast! In fact, catching one is challenging, but if you are able to catch one they are obligated to be honest with you. So to find out where the leprechaun has hidden his treasure, you must first build a leprechaun trap! Lure him in with glittery faux gold then spring the trap and catch your little green fortune teller!

To make this leprechaun trap you will need:

Recycled cereal box
Gold glitter
Construction paper green, red, blue, purple, yellow, orange, white
Cotton balls
12-inch dowel or stick
36-inch piece of yarn or string
White craft glue
Glue stick
Scissors
Tape

Close the open end of the cereal box using tape. Cut the front (or back) of the cereal box off. Cover the box with green construction paper.

MESS ALERT! I’m using glitter. There are alternatives if you prefer not to use glitter. There’s glitter glue, but it will take time to dry, as will glitter paint. You can also use gold craft paint. or if you’re lucky enough to find them, use plastic gold coins that can sometimes be found at the dollar store.

Using the piece of cardboard you just removed from the cereal box, cover a section with glue stick. Sprinkle the glue with glitter and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Tape the excess off onto a piece of paper and funnel the excess glitter back into the glitter container.

Cut the glittered cardboard into squares. Use scissors to round the corners of the squares to make gold coins. Set the coins aside.

Cut red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple construction paper into 2-inch wide strips. Begin with red, glue the orange strip on top of the red overlapping by 1-inch. Next add yellow, overlapping the orange by 1-inch. Continue this process with green, blue and purple. Trim 1-inch off the last (purple) strip so that all visible colors are 1-inch wide. This is your rainbow path.

Cover a piece of white construction paper with white craft glue. Add cotton balls to the craft glue to create the clouds.

To connect the rainbow path to the cloud, run a bit of glue stick along the underside edge of the path and stick it to the white paper, just under the cotton balls. Pile some of the gold coins onto the cloud, then create a “bread crumb” type trail of coins from the cloud down the rainbow path.

Get your kids to set up the trap by placing the clouds and path on the table or floor. Tie yarn around one end of the dowel. Prop the cereal box up with the dowel and hide! When the leprechaun follows the gold trail and ends up inside the box with the pile of gold, pull the yarn which will yank out the dowel and drop the box, trapping the leprechaun inside! Be sure to remind your kids that they are very, VERY fast. So fast, they may not even see him escape!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!