Fairy Tales and Castles ! !

What child is not enchanted with the idea of living in a castle.  Whether you aspire to be a princess or a knight,  the class was eager to learn about castles.  Zoey brought in some cool pictures of  castles.... 

as did Briana.  Thank you to everyone who  sent in a castle image.  We did a lot of comparing, counting towers, looking for moats and arches.

A castle puzzle sparks the imagination since the girls could arrange the pieces as  they wished.

There's really nothing like designing your own castle!  Adding paper towel tube towers and yogurt container turrets  just added to the fun and building strategy.

We took pictures of each child wearing a crown...

and then taped those pictures to small blocks so that the kids could incorporate themselves and their friends into their  play.

We are making castles out of paper shapes.  Saul was very focused on choosing all of the metallic papers for his castle.

Govind wanted many towers as well as an arch for the door and window.

Daniel wanted a 2 level castle!

Amelia started off with a moat.  It is fun to hear the children use the new vocabulary we have introduced, as well as see them take a minute to visualize their design before just plunging in!  The changes in the children are so wonderful. 

One more way to build and create....wikki sticks!  Jake and Suri have a whole village going here.

Amelia had the brilliant idea to push small jewels into the wikki sticks.  How could we say no when this added another fine motor element to their play!

This became a 2 day project.  We love to watch the children repeat an activity they find interesting.

And finally.....weaving.  We talked about how cold and damp a castle would be.  Then we asked how  the children keep warm when it is cold in their house.  They all knew that you put on the heat...but what if there is no heat!

Huge woven tapestries hang on the walls of most castles so we created our own.

Pushing and pulling long ribbons or lengths of yarn through this orange material was difficult. 

Our finished tapestry is on a  cabinet door.  Come in and take a look.