March means it’s time for some leprechaun fun! St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect chance to mix a little magic with learning. This year, try a STEM twist with leprechaun traps! Your students will love designing and building their own traps, and you’ll love the teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving they inspire. Plus, this project follows the STEM process, reinforcing key skills in a fun and engaging way.

The STEM Design Steps in Action

1. Define the Problem

Start by introducing the challenge: “How can we build a trap to catch a trickster leprechaun?” with a read aloud.

2. Brainstorm

Show pictures of different leprechaun traps to get students thinking. Discuss materials and possible trap designs.

3. Design

Have students sketch their own leprechaun trap plans, thinking through how their trap will work.

4. Build, Test, Redesign

Time to bring their ideas to life! Students will construct their traps, test them, and make improvements as needed.

5. Share

Once the traps are complete, students write a How-To paragraph explaining how their trap works and share their creations with the class.

Now that you have an overview of the STEM design process, let’s break down each step with detailed instructions, tips, and ideas to help your students successfully plan, build, and test their leprechaun traps!

Prep – Send home a leprechaun trap letter

Begin this project at least a week before Saint Patrick’s Day so the traps are ready to ‘catch’ the little leprechauns! About a week before St. Patrick’s Day, send home this letter asking for materials to help the students build their leprechaun traps. The letter explains the educational benefits of the project as well. We use the engineering design process to build our traps, which makes this project such a great way to build teamwork skills while also encouraging creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

1. Define the problem – “How can we catch a leprechaun?”

Prior to building, I bring my students to the rug to read the story How to Catch a Leprechaun. Another one of my favorite’s is the Night Before St. Patrick’s Day. After we read the story we talk about how leprechauns typically show up to the classroom on St. Patrick’s Day and it’s our job to make sure they don’t mess up our classroom!

2. Brainstorm ideas – Share examples of leprechaun traps

This process gets the students excited and thinking about their own trap. My favorite way to open up my St. Patrick’s Day Pinterest board and scroll through all the pictures. We stop and talk about the different ideas that we see. The kids will squeal and laugh as they anticipate what their trap will look like. 

3. Design – Draw up the plans

Next, I give them a plan sheet for them to draw up their plans. This is is an essential part of the STEM process and setting aside the time for your students to complete this process will force them to slow down and actually develop a plan. I also explain to my students that part of being an engineer involves the ability to be flexible and willing to change the plans after doing some testing.

4. Build – Test – Redesign

Here’s the logistics and management of this step. If you sent home the Leprechaun Trap Letter, perhaps parents sent in supplies. If not, here is another idea:I lay out a table filled with supplies from my cabinets. This would include construction paper, yarn, q-tips, markers, glitter, glue, pipe cleaners, etc. Each student uses their own box (I bring in a few from home for those who don’t have one). The students start with the materials that they brought from home. Anything they don’t plan to use, they put on the table for others to use.

I remind the students to use their plan sheet to help guide them through their building process. I encourage them to think about how the leprechaun will use the trap. Do they have something that will lure the leprechaun over to their trap (i.e. gold or glitter)? Do they have signs that tell the leprechauns what to do or where to go? How will they trick the leprechaun? How will they capture the leprechaun? I also tell them that their design does not have to be perfect the first time. This is part of the design process. Check out these amazing pictures of student traps from Emie C.!

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5. Share – How To Make a Leprechaun Trap Paragraph

Last, the kids are given a chance to walk around the classroom and look at everyone’s traps. Then they sit down and write out the step by step process of how they built their leprechaun trap. Some years we’ve had time to invite other classrooms to walk through to take a look at their creations. During these viewings, my students have a chance to sit by their trap and read their paragraph to students who stop by to look at their trap.

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Want all day fun?

If you are looking to extend the fun, check out our ready to go St. Patrick’s Day party plan!

P.S. If you end up doing leprechaun traps this year, I’d be THRILLED if you tagged us @luckylittlelearners on social media so I can see your students’ masterpieces!