One trap was a Lucky Charms cereal box, arranged horizontally with cereal bits as bait. Another was a green shoe box adorned with a path of gold coins designed to lead an unsuspecting leprechaun into a hole.
Another box contraption was cut along its sides, creating a behind-bars effect.
“First, it climbs up the ladder and then it falls into the box,” 5-year-old Kali Paur said.
The projects were all done at home to help nurture constructive family time, said Paul Ramey, the director of children’s center services at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, which manages the school.
“The fact that families are getting more busy, and probably more stressed now than in a long time, I think it’s refreshing to work together on something that’s fun like this,” he said. “To work with their kids is quality time that’s focused on something that’s broadening a child’s creativity and boosting a child’s mind, and that’s really empowering.”
The leprechaun traps fit with the school’s philosophy that takes what children are interested in and channels that into play-based learning and experiencing, Ramey said.
“The goals go from language development to socio-emotional development and math, but it’s done through play,” he said. “We develop the goals individually and as a group, and write our curriculum to meet those goals.”
The traps were judged for their creativity, but all students were awarded a prize. Throughout the judging, adults asked students to explain how their traps worked, and why they were built that way.
“Mommy did it,” said Dylan Marquez, 4. “[I added] the gold after the rainbow.”
The most popular question asked to students is what they’d buy with their leprechaun’s gold.
“I would buy a toy T. rex,” Dylan said.
The school is home to 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds who, while being rambunctious, get along nicely, teacher Vivian Campbell said.
“The younger ones learn from the older ones and the older ones learn from the younger ones,” she said. “Every time we get someone new, it’s like another piece of the puzzle.”
