Leprechaun Launch

Fun Facts/Information:

• On St. Patrick's Day, you are more likely to see a leprechaun as they are pulled toward towns by the smell of corned beef and cabbage cooking. No leprechaun can pass on well-cooked cabbage.
• The Carlingford Leprechaun Protection Group successfully petitioned the European Union to preserve Carlingford Mountain in Ireland and protect remaining leprechauns that live there.

Materials:

• 9 green jumbo craft sticks
• 8 yellow rubber bands
• Gold plastic spoon
• Single serve Lucky Charms cereal
• 2 bowls
• 6 mini black cauldrons
• 6 gold circle dot stickers
• Paper Lucky Charms graph

Procedure

Lucky Charm Graphing

1. Open the cereal box and pour it into one bowl.
2. Remove all the marshmallows from the cereal and place them into the second bowl. Enjoy the remaining cereal as a snack or set it aside for later.
3. Place each marshmallow onto the Lucky Charms graph (see page 3 of PDF below), matching the shape of the marshmallow with the shape on the paper.
4. After placing all the marshmallows, ask the following questions:
   • Which marshmallow shape did you have the most of?
   • Which marshmallow shape did you have the least of?
5. Place the marshmallows back into the bowl and set aside to use later.

Lucky Charm Graphing

1. Stack 7 craft sticks on top of each other evenly and wrap a rubber band tightly around each end of the stack u nti I the sticks are bundled together tightly.
2. Stack the last 2 craft sticks on top of each other evenly and wrap a rubber band tightly around one end, leaving the other end of that bundle open.
3. Insert the 7-stick bundle into the middle of the 2-stick bundle so that the two bundles are perpendicular and in the shape of a cross.
4. Slide the 7-stick bundle towards the rubber band on the end of the 2-stick bundle. The closer you get to the rubber band, the more power your catapult will have.
5. Wrap a rubber band in an "X" formation where the two bundles cross, making it tight enough so that the bundles stay together and cross shaped.
6. Line up the plastic spoon on top of one of the sticks in the 2-stick bundle, making sure the round end of the spoon is at the open end of the stick and the handle is pointing toward the closed end. Use 1 or 2 rubber bands to secure the spoon to the stick. You have now created your catapult!

Launching:

1. Place one gold dot sticker on each of the 6 plastic cauldrons.
2. Writing on the gold stickers, label 1 pot as 1 point, 2 of the pots as 3 points, and the remaining 3 pots as 5 points.
3. Place the pots up across the table, randomly spaced and in no specific order. Now you can play a game using your catapult!
4. Place one marshmallow on the spoon of the catapult. Gently press down on the edge of the spoon and let go to launch the marshmallow into the air towards the black pots. The goal is to have the marshmallow land in one of the pots. When it does, you score the number of points on that pot. Compete against you family and friends to see who can score the most points!

Get the PDF!

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