Leprechaun Home (with recycled materials!)

The last two years I have totally spaced on St. Patty's, but not this year!  This year I remembered well ahead of time and was eager to get into some crafting with my boys.  My older son loves fairy houses- they seem to be on almost every nature trail here on the island.   I figured, if there are fairy houses, why not leprechaun houses as well!

For our leprechaun, home, we used all recycled materials we already had, plus some paint and collected items from outside.   This is what we did as an example, but of course, use your own resources and creativity!

• I used a glue gun to stick a few popsicle sticks together to create a roof. (You can also use recycled cardboard or wood from outside). 
• I glued the roof onto an old tin can (be sure that the edge is not sharp!) You may have to do the majority of this depending on the age of your children.
• Next, I laid out a lot of paint for my boys to decorate with. (A great way to incorporate sensory play and science as colours are mixed!)
• We let it dry for about an hour and as we did, we went outside and collected nature items that we wanted in our leprechaun home: leaves, pinecones, rocks, branches, dirt and so on.
• Finally, we filled the tin can and decorated the home with the items we had collected.  Then we found a special spot outside where we thought the leprechaun might find it!

Okay, I'm going to be totally honest here. My one year old really just had a fun time running around the yard, and we've never introduced the idea of a leprechaun to our 3-year-old.  So, he decided to make the home into a bird home!  He added the pinecone bird feeder we had made last week and some bird seed to the tin can.  Turned out to be a great idea, because the birds spotted it right away.

So, let your children's imagination run wild. Perhaps you'd like to drop a few gold chocolate coins into the home, go on a leprechaun hunt, or simply turn it into a birdhouse.  The idea is that you're connecting with your children the entire time...so happy connecting!

What did your children create?  Did you go on a leprechaun hunt or did your home turn into something else? Comment below!