Finished Leprechaun Traps!

My students looked forward to building Leprechaun traps all week long. I drew out the process a bit by having them experiment with specific materials, and draw out their plans, but when the time came to actually build the traps, I was still surprised by their intense focus!

I really should have left more time for this activity, they definitely would have used it.  Most of them really did use their drawn plans, referring to them often as they put together different pieces of their traps.  I ended up sacrificing the paper leprechauns from our Juggling Leprechauns counting set, to be used as "decoy Leprechauns" but they put the rest of their traps together independently.

This one has a rainbow and a pot of gold to lure the Leprechaun over, where he will fall into the hidden green bucket. 

This trap is hidden beneath our steps, and has a decoy friendly Leprechaun and fake gold to lure the "real" Leprechaun in.

To be honest with you, I'm still not quite sure how this one was supposed to work, but it had something to do with the Leprechaun getting stuck in a piece of tape...

This trap involves the Leprechaun walking on a tight rope to get to the hidden rainbow, where one of the buckets will fall and capture him. 

This trap was specifically place on our play oven so that "when the Leprechaun falls into jail, his butt will get hot." (Only a 5 year old boy would think of this stuff...).

I think that they turned out really well, and I'm so proud of the critical thinking and creativity that is evident here! We'll see if they catch anything!