The Tricky Leprechaun

Every St. Patrick's day our favorite leprechaun visits our house.  He is always very tricky.  

Last year he turned O's milk green and left green pee in O's bathroom.  This year he flipped over her doll chairs and a tray of doll food, and left gold chocolate coins and green clovers on her doll piano. Then in the afternoon he hid plastic gold coins in the sandbox and later turned her bath water bright neon green.  

O's class celebrated the Friday before St. Pats.  There too, the leprechaun flipped chairs upside down and left green and gold glitter around the room.  O said she thought she could see imprints of his tiny feet in it.  O made a very elaborate trap in her classroom's invention station to catch him.    

When I taught kindergarten our classroom leprechaun was always moving things around to make rainbows.  He loved the green glitter (since he didn't have to clean it up).  The kindergartener's spent weeks planning and preparing traps to catch him. 

One year a very curious little boy in my class named Mattie believed all he needed was a magnifying glass to catch the leprechaun.  Mattie felt he was fast enough and smooth enough, but Mattie also believed his eyes were not strong enough to see the tricky little guy.  

On St. Patrick's day Mattie brought a very large five pound magnifying glass, 1/8th his weight, that his dad had gotten on a "very exotic adventure down under" as he said.  He carried it everywhere he went, library, PE, music, recess, just in case he sensed the leprechaun.  My co-teacher, JJ and I took a deep breath every time someone asked Mattie if they could hold it as they almost always dropped it not realizing it's weight.  It was like having another student to take care of.  Some of the kids tried to get him to wear a Sherlock Holmes hat from the dress up play area, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it.  We were so happy that magnifying glass made it back home in one piece.  

For the rest of the year, anytime Mattie would offer to bring the same magnifying glass back so that we could use it to look at our cicada collection or other science table observation, we would respond by saying, "Oh how sweet of you, Matthew, but your magnifying glass is too special for this.  We can only use it for catching leprechauns.  It's just too important to be used for science."  

I ran into his dad not long ago.  I mentioned the story and how nervous JJ and I had been.  Turns out, Mattie had been telling us a story.  His dad didn't get it on an exotic excursion.  His dad received it as a gift in a White Elephant game.  Looks like Mattie was my tricky leprechaun.  Kindergarten SUCKS!