Crafts for Learning about Castles

We have been studying castles and medieval times for a few days and my boys are just loving this unit.  We have been reading books, watching movies, and enjoying a few hands- on crafts and lessons.



Ian spent a bit of time on the Lego Castle Adventure website reading all about medieval castles and creating his own coat of arms.
  
Evan also went on the Lego Castle site and with my help was able to earn a few trophies for his room.

He made a coat of arms and it was neat to hear his logic for all the things he picked:

  • He made his shield a diamond shape because he figured it would offer the most protection.  
  • He picked the colors blue and yellow because they are his favorite.  
  • He made the Falcon (bird) in the middle a deep red to match the trim he had chosen.  
We read about castle jobs and took a little quiz.  He kept getting one or two wrong and in order to get the trophy you had to get them all right.  He got frustrated and quit and I couldn't blame him.

We moved over to the Medieval Times site and looked at some of the weapons of the time period.

Then he asked me to print out a coat of arms for him to color.   

They all seem pretty caught up in the coat of arms so I thought I'd let them each make one out of cardboard next week and they can paint & decorate it.


In furthering our medieval study we read Smelly Old History Medieveal Muck and the boys were asked to draw, paint, or create in 3- D their own castle.


We studied pictures of castles found on the Internet and I showed them some art samples I had found on pinterest the other day.  I then left them to create.

They all thought play- d'oh would be the best choice (I was surprised and thought Ian at least would want Lego's) but we pulled out the jars and I left them to it.  Here's what they came up with so far:




Ian's castle may be a bit hard to see on the mat but he included window holes, drawbridge, and the center keep

Alec's castle is two floors with mote and parapets.


For history we read a book called Knights and Castles and made our own mini bow and arrows using Popsicle sticks, dental floss and q- tips.

If you follow this link you'll find the directions.  It was pretty simple and lots of fun!  I'm sure I'll be finding q-tips around for quite some time but that's OK.   They set up a castle out of soft blocks and tried to knock it over.  

They realized it took quite a lot of coordination and concentration to get the bow and arrow to work right.  It was a bit hard to use since it was so small and your fingers have a tendency to get in the way.



Linking Up With:






Homeschool Coffee Break

CCBG-PartyLogo


Comments

  1. That Smelly Old History book looks fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. kids and castles - can't help but have fun AND learn some things along the way! Looks like some memorable education happening there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very fun! My kids enjoyed medieval themed crafts and activities when they were younger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think there is something so fascinating about castles and knights that just draws kids in.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Share Our Lives: 5 Items I Can't Live Without

Prime Purchases in February 2023

Let's Look At... Our Grocery haul