CENTER – Saint Patrick’s Day is here, and the first-grade classrooms at Center Consolidated School District, were all asked the same question, “How do you catch a Leprechaun.” 

On Thursday, March 12, Center Consolidated School District had a mini open house for the first graders, from 2 to 3 p.m., so that students could show off their Leprechaun Traps, and how they planned to catch a Leprechaun for Saint Patrick’s Day.  

First grade teacher Lindsay Stillwagon was excited as she spoke about her class and how each of her students was ecstatic about catching a leprechaun. “All first grades created these Leprechaun traps. They started with a picture plan of how they would catch a leprechaun. They started building it and making it come to life. After they built the trap, we turned it into a writing project as well where the kids planned and talked about how the leprechaun would get trapped within their trap, in the form of writing it out. They really had a lot of fun with this.” 

Stillwagon stated that one of the coolest things she saw the kids doing was being so creative with how they were going to build their traps and the different ways in which they would catch their leprechauns. 

“We definitely had some creative traps this year,” she stated with a laugh. “We had a few kids wanting to make some leprechaun hotels. We even had some kids make some swimming pools for the leprechauns. One of the pools was called Hooper pool, and the kids put up a sign that said ‘Do Not Go Swimming here,’ the purpose of that is because leprechauns are mischievous and don’t follow the rules, they never do what they are told to do, they do just the opposite so the kids figured if they put up the sign then the leprechauns would swim there, and they could catch one. So, the swimming pools were actually a hole into the box that the kids made to trap the leprechauns.” 

Stillwagon stated that the kids were a little nervous on Thursday for the mini open house, because they all had to give their presentations to everyone who came to see their traps. She stated there were different grades that attended the presentations along with parents, and friends who attended to see the students’ leprechaun traps. 

“The kids walked around and they each had a few people standing at each of their traps. So, the kids could either read their writing or just outright explain how each of their traps worked. They were really happy at the end though and they even said oh we did so good. Some of the kids even said they were tired and they had talked so much, but they really enjoyed it.”  

Stillwagon stated that the kids all got to take their Leprechaun Traps home over Spring Break to catch their leprechauns. 

“They were excited, because if you catch a leprechaun, he either has to give you a wish or you get to keep his gold, so the kids were telling me about all their wishes. A lot of them were wishing for phones, and one student even wished for their families to be happy all the time. It was just so sweet. One girl stated she is going to stay up all night to try to catch one. We will see what stories they come back with after Spring Break.”