Small world play allows children to act out scenarios (scenes from real life, stories they have heard and/or from their imagination) in a miniature play scene, created with small figures and objects.

A child’s small world play is often based around a certain theme depending on the child’s interests such as farming, construction area, dolls, fairy garden or even a dinosaur world.

Everyday items around the house or garden can be transformed to create small world play scenes. An empty box transforms into a garage for farming and construction toys, a carpet turns into a busy highway.

The options are as limitless as kids’ imaginations! During our leprechaun week, we learned all about Ireland, rainbows, and hidden treasure. With a variety of different sensory materials, students explored this new world with their friends!

Many scholars believe that the origin of the word leprechaun is the old Irish Lú Chorpain meaning small body.

Another definition has linked the modern name to luchorpán ( a word from the 8th century AD ) which is defined as sprite or pygmy.

Finally, the word leprechaun has been connected to leath bhrógan (shoe maker). This definition is also a possibility as many stories about leprechauns have shown their profession to be the cobblers of the fairy world.

For this activity, we used a few holiday relics to learn about Saint Patrick’s Day. Using slime, pots of gold, shamrocks, gold coins and miniature gnomes, we created various stories with our friends!

The Leprechaun is a much-loved and sometimes feared magical creature of Irish folk legend.

Short in stature and with a long-beard and pot of gold, leprechauns were once believed to pervade the Irish countryside.

Those little men all dressed in green, obsessed with rainbows and treasure, trickery, and of course shoe-making.

As part of our leprechaun week, we made our very own leprechaun traps! Using gold coins, a shoebox, and our imaginations, we set up the perfect trap for our little friends!