cutie-patutie
Yesterday we had a very special visitor stop by the Hollis home… a Leprechaun!!
mystery guest’s footprints
This leprechaun left a trail of footsteps all over the house with notes addressed to Sir Jackson (Rachel’s oldest son). Apparently the leprechaun had left a special surprise for Jackson, but wanted to give him a secret code to find it….
Ok, so yes, Rachel and I put together an awesome St. Patrick’s day scavenger hunt for Jackson. It was so simple to put together, and the smile on his face was worth his weight in gold.When I was about Jackson’s age (6), my 1st grade teacher had put green footprints all around the classroom on St. Patty’s day, and I remember thinking it was SO magical. To this day, it is my favorite St. Patrick’s day memory. I know your kids’ will love it too!!
Materials:
Green paper
Gold wrapped candy
Tape
Rainbow wrapping paper
magic
First, cut out the leprechaun footprints out of green construction paper. I made them smaller than a human’s feet (because leprechaun’s are small, right?) and simply laid them down on the floor. Each path of footprints leads to a note. From that note, the footprints disappear and reappear where the note hints to. Let’s start from the beginning:
addressed envelope
Jackson was greeted with this addressed envelope when he got home from school. You can do this the morning of St. Patrick’s by placing an envelope somewhere so they stumble upon it first thing. It’ll be like Christmas!
The first thing out of Jackson’s mouth was, “Thank you for doing this.” It was so sincere it melted my heart. What a little gentleman! He read the first note, which said:
the challenge set
This note was the first thing he saw when he entered the front gate… next.
following the evidence
Next was a trail of footprints leading to his first clue.
1st clue
reading like a champ!
This note was simply placed on the floor at the end of the footprints. If we had more time, we would have made the notes more fancy, but there was no need for such crafting! Jackson could have cared less what the note looked like. He was just excited about the gold hunt.
healthy snack trail
The note led Jackson to the fridge: where the healthy snacks are held. The footprints started from the fridge and led outside…
playing detective
Outside the kitchen, the footprints stopped on the step.
2nd clue
Jackson found the next clue taped to the wall right above the leprechaun’s last 2 foot prints.
running!
Jackson is a fast runner! He almost lost me on his way to his “nest”… where the next clue was:
gleeful!
This is my favorite part. Jackson squealed when he saw the footprints going up the wall in his bedroom. That leprechaun sure is magical!! Just a little tape, and I had these prints up in seconds.
human latter
3rd clue
“Jackson, where would a pot of gold be?”
pot of gold
Earlier, we had placed an “x” on our “pot of gold.” The x was cut out of rainbow wrapping paper we had laying around.
found it!
we have a winner!
This leprechaun hunt was so simple to put together. Hopefully this will inspire you to put together a scavenger hunt for your little ones. If so, send us a picture! We want to see your creative touches.
Have a fun St. Patrick’s day this Sunday! Stay lucky!!
