St. Joseph School

First graders at St. Joseph Elementary School believed in leprechauns, at least on March 17, when they celebrated St. Patrick's Day by setting out traps for them. Leprechauns are said to love gold and trickery and may steal or hide items unless they're captured, pleased, or scared away.
Teachers Hannah Yrle and Amy Rehm decided to use the occasion as a teaching moment by creating a STEM activity out of it. The children began the day before by drawing blueprints of the traps. As the traps were made they journaled about what the leprechauns were doing. Some of them even found that the leprechauns had left footprints behind.
"This activity touched on a lot of different skills," Mrs. Yrle said. "These included: Cause and Effect, Building/Designing, and Problem Solving."