Lots of Lucky Leprechauns: Activities, Books & Fun Facts

Two weeks until St. Patrick’s Day! As an Irish family, this is a holiday that we get a wee bit excited about.  Also, we traveled to Ireland when the girls were tiny and while they were too young to remember the trip, we use St. Patrick’s Day as a time to talk a lot about it. We remind them of places we saw and relatives we met. Ireland and Irish culture is important to our family. We also love green orange, rainbows, hunting for gold and of course…. leprechauns. This year’s St. Patrick’s Day blog post has a leprechaun theme since it seems to be the part about the holiday my kids have the most interest in this year. We hope you enjoy these green little lads as much as we do. Here are some of our favorite Leprechaun activities, books and fun facts:

Leprechaun Craft

If you love leprechauns like we do, you might want to dress like one. Here’s a fun, easy way to make your own leprechaun outfit:

Mask/Hat:

Supplies: paper plate, orange paint or marker, green paper, gold paper or marker, scissors and glue

Directions: Cut out the middle of the paper plate. Paint or color the remaining rim of the plate orange. Cut out a leprechaun hat from the green paper. Use the gold paper or marker to decorate the hat. Glue the hat to the paper plate. Peek through and now you have an orange beard and green hat and look just like a leprechaun!

Your Own DIY Rainbow with a Pot of Gold:

Supplies: rainbow colored paper, black paper, gold paper, scissors & tape or glue

Directions: Cut strips of the rainbow colored paper. Create a paper chain using the rainbow strips of paper. Secure them with tape or a stapler. Cut out a black pot and “gold”. Attach this to the end of the rainbow paper chain.

Fun Facts about Leprechauns (Free Printable)

Click here to download & print Fun Facts About Leprechauns

Books About Leprechauns. There are many great books about leprechauns but currently these are our 3 favorites:

1. Lucky Tucker (since we are dog lovers)
2. Ten Lucky Leprechauns (fun rhyming book)
3. How to Catch a Leprechaun (because who doesn’t want to catch a leprechaun of their own?)

Last but not least.…A fun leprechaun activity is making a leprechaun trap. I had never heard of this until the girls did it at their preschool. The book above “How to Catch a Leprechaun” shows some funny ideas for a trap and you can find some pretty neat ideas on Pinterest. You can also make it super simple and use a shoe box and random craft supplies/ recyclables you have around the house. Then, leave the trap out and see if you catch a leprechaun. Parents… the fun part is to trash the area around the trap, flip the trap over, etc so the kids think they “almost” caught one!

Looking for more St. Patrick’s Day fun? Check out these posts:

St. Patrick’s Day Word Search (free printable)

Facts About Ireland and Color Your Own Flag (free printables)

10 St. Patrick’s Day Crafts for Kids