This build a leprechaun craft is the perfect activity to kick off your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations!
As your little ones cut, sort, and piece their leprechaun together, they’re working on some genuinely important early skills – fine motor control, scissor technique, spatial awareness and the concentration it takes to get that hat sitting just right.
This craft is great one for toddlers and preschoolers because it’s so simple to do!
It would also be brilliant for if you’re having a St Patrick’s Day themed party!
Other St. Patrick’s Day printables you may want to check out:
- Over The Rainbow St. Patrick’s Day Number Match Game
- St. Patrick’s Day I Spy Game
- Help The Leprechaun Find His Lucky Coins Counting Game
- St. Patrick’s Day CVC Words
Or if you fancy some more cut and paste crafts you can check them all out here.
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When making this cute leprechaun craft, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some skills such as:
- Cutting Skills – if you feel they’re ready, you can let them have a go at cutting out the pieces themselves – they’ll have to be careful and have good scissor control if they want to cut out the pieces neatly
- Fine Motor Skills – when they’re gluing and picking up and moving the body parts and placing them where they need to go
- Body Knowledge – great for the little ones to think about how the different parts of the body fit together (the head bones connected to the… hat bone)
- Pencil Control – if you print off the black and white version they can practice their pencil control and develop hand strength through coloring.
This St. Patrick’s Day craft will also give them a chance to practice their concentration and perseverance skills as they may find it tricky to place the pieces exactly where they want them to go.
How To Prepare This Build a Leprechaun Craft?
First you’re going to want to download the build a leprechaun craft printables by clicking on the download box at the bottom of the page – I’ve made a color and a black and white version!
Other materials you’ll need:
- Safety scissors
- Card stock or craft paper
- Glue
- Some artsy materials
Once you’ve downloaded the template, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then, you can cut them out. Or if you’d like your children to get some cutting practice, you can let them have a go.
Then you can stick them all together to build your leprechaun.
It can be really nice to let you’re kids have a bit of free rein here and see if they can work it out – kind of like a puzzle.
If they’re struggling, the order I’d do it in is:
- Stick the hat on the head
- Stick the belt on the body
- Stick the head on the body
- Stick the arms on the body
- Stick the feet on the body
(I expect you could have worked that out but I do like to be thorough…)
The finished one should look something like this:
If you want to you could always laminate them and use them as a puzzle. That way the different parts would be kept nice and they can use them again and again.
Or you can check out all the cut and paste crafts here.
After that you’re all done!
Let your kids practice their cutting and sticking skills in a fun St. Patrick’s Day way!
But Wait… There’s Also A Black And White Build A Leprechaun Craft
I’ve also made a black and white version which would be an awesome way for your little ones to practice their coloring skills and personalize their leprechaun in their own way!
Some Other Ways You Could Use This Leprechaun Craft
L is for Leprechaun: Once your little ones have built their leprechaun, use it for some phonics fun. Say the word together focusing on the beginning sound, write the letter L, and you could even make some other l crafts – ladybug, leopard and lion! A fun way to build that phonemic awareness and letter recognition.
Leprechaun Sensory Hunt: Laminate the pieces and hide them in a tray of green-dyed rice, gold glitter sand, or shredded green tissue paper. Your little ones dig through to find each piece, then assemble their leprechaun once they’ve tracked them all down. Brilliant for sensory exploration and builds focus and fine motor skills as they search and sort.
Leprechaun Trap STEM Challenge: One of the most popular St. Patrick’s Day activities in classrooms – and your finished leprechaun makes the perfect prop! After building, challenge your children to design and build a trap to catch him using recycled materials – boxes, tubes, tape, string. They’ll need to think about what bait to use (gold coins, obviously) and how to make it work. Builds problem-solving, creative thinking and early engineering skills.
Pot of Gold Counting: Before sticking the pieces down, use small gold coins (real, chocolate, cut from yellow card or use this template) to practice counting. How many coins can your leprechaun carry? Line them up, count them out, add more, take some away. A lovely hands-on way to build number sense and counting skills.
Wish Upon a Leprechaun: After building, ask your little ones: “If you caught this leprechaun and he had to grant you ONE wish, what would it be?” They can tell you, draw it, or you can scribe a sentence for them. A lovely, low-prep way to build imaginative thinking, early writing skills, and some really entertaining conversations!
Describe and Build: A partner activity! Lay all the pieces out face-up. One child describes a piece without pointing (“it’s green and goes on his head…”) while their partner finds it and places it. Take turns until the leprechaun is complete. Great for vocabulary, listening and turn-taking skills.
Are You Feeling Lucky?: Talk with your little ones about luck – what does it mean to be lucky? What makes them feel lucky? Draw or write one lucky thing each on a shamrock-shaped piece of paper and display them alongside their finished leprechauns.
Rainbow Scene: Get your little ones to stick their finished leprechaun onto a plain piece of paper and draw or collage a rainbow and pot of gold scene behind him. A great creative extension that also links naturally to color mixing and other art skills.
St. Patrick’s Day Class Parade: One for the classrooms! Attach a popsicle stick to the back of the finished leprechaun and it becomes a parade puppet. Put on some Irish-style music, and your little ones march their leprechauns around the room in a St. Patrick’s Day parade.
However your little learners use it, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
Enjoy – and let’s nurture those neurons!
