Are you reading fairy tales??? Last week, I shared with you how to make CUTE fire-breathing dragon heads! Today, I’ll be sharing a simple castle project as a fun addition to the theme! PLUS, a link to a knight, princess, beanstalk, dragon head, castle, and a guided drawing dragon bundle! 
Here we go!
Preparation:
Cut all of the paper pieces listed in the chart ahead of time. Make sure that you pay attention to how many pieces of each item are needed per child. For example, each child will need two tower top pieces, but only one castle body piece, etc.
A. Get white stickers for the windows and doors. We gave the children six round, white stickers of about .75 inches each, and then cut some white address labels down to give them five rectangles each. Children could also be given white paper (or any other color) instead of stickers. To make a circle, give kids a square and show them how to round off the corners to make a circle. Another alternative is to purchase a large, round hole punch at a craft store. But to me, this is MUCH more work than it is worth, and the punches soon become dull with repeated use.
B. Decide if you want to duplicate or pretrace the triangles and castle tops, or let the children just do their own thing. I did not do this for my students, opting instead to let them try it themselves! However, the samples shown were done by first and second graders. So I have provided patterns for you to duplicate or trace, just in case you prefer to give them help with that part.
C. Decide if you want to let the children make other creative items to go on their castles, such as little people or flags, etc. If so, then you’ll need to provide some paper scraps for them to work with! Personally, I think it is VERY good for children to exercise a little bit of creative muscle and just try to make a few things on their own!
D. I recommend setting up the pieces in plastic tubs that are labeled with sticky notes that say what each piece is for, and how many each child needs. (For example, see the photo of the princess’ hats in the plastic basket.) Once you have all of this set up, you’re ready to roll!
Note: This project will only take about 20 minutes to complete, unless you want to give the children extra time to do some creative things with extra paper.
Procedure:
1. Castle Body (Center):
If you have duplicated the master for the children, have them just cut it out. If not, show them how to make one inch cuts along the top, fold them down and then cut along the fold.
2. Tower Columns:
Glue both tower columns on either side of the castle body. It doesn’t matter which side they go on!
3. Tower Tops:
If you pre-traced or duplicated them, just cut out the triangles for the towers. Otherwise, show the children how to make a triangle out of a square.
4. Door:
The door just needs to be glued down. But some of my children glued it on just one side so that it could open!
5. Windows:
Assuming you are using stickers, all the children will need to do is lay them down. If you cut paper, then for round windows you’ll need to round off the corners.
6. Other Creative Items:
Let the children do these on their own!
To Display:
This castle project was part of our Fairy Tale unit, and we displayed them right next to some stories that the children wrote themselves! Their job was to write their own fairy tale that incorporated elements from two different fairy tales!
So for example, instead of Beauty and the Beast, it might be Beauty and the Beanstalk. We practiced writing a couple of these together first, mixing up the characters, settings, and problems in the stories. All of the stories had to start with “Once upon a time,” and have a happy ending.
I was surprised that many of the children were more inclined to write a sad ending instead! I told them that the problem HAD to be resolved somehow; we couldn’t just let the sleeping princess lie there forever and the knight kill everyone, etc.
(Note: I have two different lined pages included in the freebie. A shorter one for first grade, a slightly longer one for second!) To download this castle project freebie, instructions + templates, click here!!
On my website, we sell a whole fairy tale craftivities SET!! For $4, this set includes instructions + templates for all of the following craftivities:
Princess
Knight
Castle (Which this blog post is on. Also available here as a free download by itself!)
Dragon Head (Also available here as a free download by itself! Click here for my blog post on it!)
Dragon Guided Drawing
Paper Plate Spiral Beanstalk
For more fairy tale ideas, check out my board on Pinterest!!
Have a good week!!!
– Heidi
P.S. Our Number Jumble DVD now includes numbers 11-30, also!!!! For just $10 more, so $25, we added 20 more songs!! Check it out!!!
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