Let's Make a Castle- Planning

Over the past couple of weeks, the preschoolers and toddlers have been working on building a castle. It all started when I noticed several children making castles with blocks and MR even made a "zoo castle." Elissa and I thought that the group may like to build a large, permanent, castle that they could use. So, one Monday we brought up the idea to the group and they all got very excited about it. We wanted the castle to be something that was completely designed and decorated by them, with just construction help by Elissa and me. So, after snack we began planning for our castle. 

We all sat down in a circle and everyone had the opportunity to talk about ideas they had for the castle. I shared a few pictures of real castles and fairytale castles with the group before and during our discussion. 

This is the initial list that the group came up with:

 1. Make the castle so we can go inside it.

2. Make a wall that doesn't have holes.

3. Use cardboard boxes and use paper to paint.

4. Use paint like glue.

5. Put paper on top of the paint.

6. Have pink, red, and purple on the castle.

7. Pom-poms would be good for the top of the castle.

8. Make doors and windows.

9. Put toys inside of the castle.

10. Make it a rainbow castle.

11. Have a clock on the castle.

The group even came up with some initial rules about the castle:

1. Only Elissa and Bee can cut the castle.

2. The castle is only for kids that are quiet and not loud. Calm kids.

3. The castle is only open for a little while. Not open all of the time so it doesn't break.

After everyone had the opportunity to share their ideas about the castle, Elissa and I got out paper and colored pencils and crayons so that anyone that would like to, could draw what they would like the castle to look like.

 

 

After everyone had time to draw their castles, we came back together to discuss what each person wanted the castle to look like. Everyone had the opportunity to talk about their castle drawings.

From the drawings came even more ideas for the castle:

SC- "Gray castle and has rainbows on it."

KO- "Mine is a firetruck. It has a window in the front and two windows in the back, And the firetruck has lots of lights and on the outside. We should have books in the castle."

TB- "Mine is a castle and it's pink." 

G- Holding his picture up, "I want this to be on the castle. It's for the castle."

IR- "This is a tree and it's going to be standing up at the end. We should have a tree outside the castle."

MR- "It has purple and orange and pink and blue and green and red and white."

TS- "I make a circle."

EB- "There are pom-poms on top of it and then a clock on the outside. And it's all yellow on the inside."

KC- "It's a rocket."

There was also some new discussion centered around having a King and Queen of the castle. EB suggested having there be a different King and Queen of the castle each day. We discussed how it would be decided who was King and Queen each day and it was decided that it would be the responsible kids from the day before.

After our planning had concluded, we talked about how we would begin the construction of our castle during the next couple of days and then it would be ready to paint and decorate!