I think the kids' favorite part of our Fairy Tale unit is our castle.
I made the castle using 3 refrigerator boxes and 5 washer/dryer boxes. I bought the plans and special rivets from
Mr. McGroovy's website. I worked on it for about 10 hours (Mr. McGroovy says it should take 2). I got much better as I went along and if I do it again, I'll get help (I bet I'll be able to finish the whole thing in 2-3 hours next year).
The kids were SO excited when they came in on Monday and saw the castle (and dress-ups).
After one day of playing in the "Paper Bag Princess castle," we painted the castle. It took almost a whole gallon of latex paint that I had bought for $7 from the "oops" section at Home Depot.
I draped two chairs with velvet to make thrones.
We decorated the castle with little tissue paper flowers and flags (with everyone's names).
Finally, we added a cardboard dragon that the kids painted with yellow paint and little squares of tissue.
Wow! That is amazing. I'd love to build that in my classroom (my principal - not so much. Boo!) I love the finishing touches you added to the outside. Was the paint smelly?
ReplyDelete~Andi
Andi- Thanks so much for coming to my blog and commenting. The castle has been so much fun (and its held up really well with LOTS of use). Too bad your principal wouldn't like it. The paint wasn't bad at all. I used those flat sponge things (that you use for edging) and I put the paint on them and handed them to the kids. They ended up being neater than me :) We just used one coat and it dried in a couple hours.
DeleteLyn
WOW!! Fantastic castle. We made one too last fall and the families loved it so I can just imagine how your children enjoyed themselves.
ReplyDeleteThanks Maureen. The kids loved it and I was so happy that one of the families was willing to take it and put it in their basement. Did you use McGroovey's rivets for your castle?
Deletewow this is so cool!!! This looks like so much fun! I'll bet the kids had a blast!
ReplyDeleteI do a castle unit in my PreK as well Lyn... I think your castle is awesome!
ReplyDeleteGreat fun for the kids!
Lyn, Thanks for all of the great ideas you share here! I teach Kindergarten Enrichment, and I have the freedom to engage my students in whatever activities I know will enrich their learning in a developmentally appropriate manner. The castle will probably be a January project for us...a great place for reading, as well as many other wonderful activities. We focus much of our time on S.T.E.M. projects, so I will develop this into one! Mine may look a bit different once my students put their engineering minds to the task, but it will be a project worth every moment spent on it! Thank you again. :) Colleen
ReplyDeleteWow such and inspiration! I would love to do that! Did you contact a local appliance business to get the boxes or did you buy them? I am definitely going to give this a go! I also love your bean stalk idea we are going to do that today! With my preschoolers we made a huge sensory mat using the cheap plastic painting sheet and duct taped the entire perimeter and filled it with water and the kids can jump on it with out getting wet! It was so much fun the adults had to try it too!
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