How to Catch a Leprechaun STEM Activity

Need a fun and engaging STEM Challenge for St. Patricks Day?

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with some fun and educational activities for your elementary students! Whether you are looking for new ideas to spice up your lesson plans or just want to add some fun to your St. Patrick's Day celebrations, this post has got you covered!

One of our favorite STEM activities is the How to Catch a Leprechaun STEM Challenge.

HOW TO CATCH A LEPRECHAUN STEM CHALLENGE

Material List:

• Tape

• Scissors

• Cardboard

• String

• Construction Paper

• Markers, Crayons, or Colored Pencils

• Binder Clips

• Robots (optional)

• Large plastic cups (optional)

• How to Trap a Leprechaun by Sue Fliess or How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace (Recommended)

In the story How to Catch a Leprechaun, the children create many different traps to try to catch a leprechaun. Unfortunately, none of their traps are successful.

Challenge your students to design and create a trap that can catch a leprechaun.

Allow students time to plan out their designs individually and as a team. Give students approximately 30 minutes to build their leprechaun traps.

Sit back and watch as students engage in problem solving! At the end of the activity, be sure to have students describe and demonstrate how their trap works.

If you have access to robots you can use them with this challenge by having the robot act as the leprechaun. Challenge students to code the leprechaun to go into the trap.

This activity is always a huge hit with students during St. Patrick’s Day!

For more information, in depth teacher instructions, student handouts, a STEM journal, and student planning and reflection pages, view the full resource HERE.

Have more questions or need additional resources?

You can get all 250+ STEM Challenges by Carly and Adam as part of the STEM Teachers Club Membership. Save $5 on your first month using coupon Code: CarlyAndAdamBlog.