How to catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace

Can you outsmart a sneaky leprechaun? Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with this fun and imaginative story that encourages creativity and problem-solving.

TOPIC: St Patrick's Day / Ireland / Rooms of the house / household objects

AGE GROUP: 6-10 year olds

THINKING SKILLS:

LOTS

remembering

understanding

HOTS

sequencing

organizing information

creating

team work

VOCABULARY:

New: leprechaun / pot of gold/ rainbow/ shamrock

Review: rooms of the house / household objects

MATERIALS: storybox / vocabulary flashcards / coins or coin cards /story book/ recycled boxes, paper, cardboard, colours, glue

YOUR STORYBOX: prepare flashcards of a leprechaun, a pot of gold and rainbow. Explain that leprechauns are solitary fairy-folk shoemakers who hide pots of gold at the end of rainbows. If captured, they may grant three wishes, even though they frequently trick their captors.

Procedure

Pre-reading

Show students the book cover. Explain that green is the national colour of Ireland and that the shamrock is its symbol. Ask students to tell you who they think the character on the cover is and why is he running away. Acceptable answers may be: he is a leprechaun and he is running because he doesn't want to be caught.

Reading

Read the story ensuring you keep it interactive. Point to the pictures in the book and elicit St Patrick's Day vocabulary.

While reading also make students notice which rooms of the house the leprechaun is into and what objects can be see there. This is a good time to review household vocabulary.

Activities

Skill 1 - Remembering

Check what students remember of the story by asking meaningful questions:

• who is the protagonist of the story?

• where does the story take place?

• what day is it? what month is it?

• is it summer? what season is it?

• what is the leprechaun wearing?

• can you describe the leprechaun?

Younger students can draw a leprechaun as they remember it.

Skill 2 - Understanding

Discuss what is happening in the story:

• what is the problem

• why is the house full of traps

• does the leprechaun manage to escape? why?

Older students can create a storytelling plot matrix and complete it with the relevant information.

WHERE	WHO	WHAT
OBSTACLE	SETBACK	HELPER
SOLUTION	ENDING	LESSON TO BE LEARNT

Skill 3 - Sequencing

Ask students to create a table as in the picture below:

Rooms	Objects
1.
2.
3.
4
5.

First ask them to write down the rooms of the house the leprechaun goes to, in the order they appear in the story.

Once the activity is completed, divide the students in small groups or pairs and explain that you are going to show them the picture of each room for 10 seconds. They need to observe it carefully and then write down as many objects as they remember seeing.

The solution may look like this:

Rooms	Objects
bathroom	bath tub, toilet, washbasin, toilet paper, duck, towel, towel holder, toothpaste, soap, mirror
living room	armchair, coffee table, chest of drawers, plant, plat holder, curtains, rug, radiator, window, picture, book, vase, cup of tea, fresh fruit, lamp
kitchen	sink, nutcracker, tap, teapot, cups and saucers,
bedroom	bed, chest of drawers, dolls house, toys, lamp, picture
study room	armchair, books, drawings, diplomas, bowling ball

Skill 4 - Create

Give your students some recycled material such as: small boxes, paper, light coloured cardboard, glue, coloured markers, pens and pencils. Ask them to build a leprechaun trap.

Kids should be free to imagine and create. However, here is an example for you:

Skill 5 - Teamwork and outdoor learning

Play: Catch the Leprechaun.

Divide students in two teams: one team are the Leprechauns and the other team is the Leprechaun Hunters. The number of people in each team doesn't need to be even. Give each Leprechaun a coin (it could be a real one, a chocolate one or even a piece of paper with "gold coin" written on it). Give students a time (for example 3 minutes). Explain that, when the game starts, Hunters need to catch Leprechauns. When Leprechauns are caught, they need to hand the Hunters their coins. If they are not caught, they keep their coins. When the game finishes, count the coins for each team and award 1 point for each coin earned. The winner is the team with more coins.

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