MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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Suggested books and videos:
Castle, by David Macaulay
Video: Castles for Kids: What is a Castle? Medieval History for Children: https://youtu.be/AesgRREuCQI
The Very Last Castle, by Travis Jonker and pictures by Mark Pett - Read aloud: https://youtu.be/4d2ECZ_Osso
Creating with recycled materials found in your home is
always a great way for children to learn not just creativity
but about recycling, re-using and taking care of our
beautiful planet Earth, our home. With this project you
will also learn about castles and history.
Materials:
Small brown corrugated box
Empty paper towel rolls (four)
Empty toilet paper rolls (two)
Clear tape
White paper
Pencil and black marker (maybe a red
marker as well)
Paint (red, brown, white)
Scissors
A container with water
Watercolor brush
Paper plate (to mix the paint in)
Elmer’s Glue
Baking cups and/or Styrofoam egg carton (any color)
Toothpicks (four)
Grade: 3 - 5
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Instructions:
With the clear tape, tape the box closed on all sides.
On the side of the box that will become the front of
the castle (not any side that’s been taped), draw a
large castle gate (see photo on right).
With red paint, paint the inside of the gate in red. If
you don’t have red paint you can use red marker, but
it may not come out so bright.
With a black marker, outline the castle gate and then
draw some “bars” from top to bottom and others
from one side to the other. These will be the “bars” of
the gate.
NOTE: The front castle gate consisted of an outer
“barred” front gate that could be left open to allow air
and light in, and a strong inner wood gate behind it to
close off the entry entirely.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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Instructions:
On a piece of white paper, measure with the ruler 1”
from each long side of the paper and make a small mark.
Using the marks as guidelines, raw a straight line from
one side of the paper to the other.
Above the straight line, draw the “battlement” wall. Fol-
low the design as closely as possible to the drawing
shown on the right. One section is wide, the next sec-
tion should be thinner, and continue….wide, thin, wide,
thin until you get to the end of the paper.
Cut the bottom straight line of the “battlement wall” that
you’ve drawn.
Now carefully cut the top of the battlement wall, wide
section then inside the thin section. Continue cutting to
the end.
The photo on the right shows the battlement wall that
was cut (on the bottom). The top portion of paper is just
waste and you can throw it away.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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Instructions:
Take the battlement wall you just cut and use it
as a template to draw two more battlement
walls.
The photo on the right shows three battlement
walls that I drew using the template. You may
only need three battlement wall strips; it all
depends on the size of the box you are using.
Now we will mix some light brown
paint by mixing brown with white paint
(see photos on left)
With the light brown paint, paint all the battle-
ment walls. Paint one side first and then let dry
completely. If you desire to paint both sides of
each wall, paint the backs of the walls once the
fronts you just painted are dry.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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Instructions:
Apply Elmer’s glue all along the top edge of the box;
front, both sides and back.
Once the blue has been applied all around, glue the
painted (and dried) battlement walls all along the top
edge of the box.
Your main castle box should look like this one on the
right.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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Instructions:
Get the two SMALL toilet paper rolls. Apply Elmer’s
glue all around the very top of each of the smaller
toilet paper rolls.
Glue the battlement wall all along the very top each
roll. You should now have two gatehouses with
battlement walls on top.
NOTE: These small rolls will become the two gatehouses
that a castle had on each side of it’s gate. I had previous-
ly drawn the windows on the roll, but don’t draw the
windows just yet.
Apply glue to each side of the castle gate as shown in
the photo on the right.
Attach the two gatehouses to
each side of the gate over the
glue you already applied. Let
dry completely.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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Instructions:
Now pick up the four paper towel rolls.
NOTE: Even though photo on right shows that I drew the
windows, do not draw the windows just yet.
Apply Elmer’s glue to each side of the box; one long
strip of glue along one edge and another along the
other edge on one side and the same on the other
side (NOT in the front of the box where you already
have the gatehouses).
Glue one of the paper roll “towers” on each side of
the box. Photo below shows how it has to look when
finished gluing.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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Instructions:
Cut off two sections from the Styrofoam egg carton
(preferably the corner ends) as shown on the right.
NOTE: If you don’t have Styrofoam egg cartons, you can
use the paper baking cups. Or, if you don’t have the
baking cups, use the egg carton. You can also use a
combination like I did; baking cups in the front towers
and eggshell carton tips on the back towers.
Add some glue to the inside edge of each baking cup
and/or cut-out eggshell piece.
Attach one top to each tower.
At this stage, your castle should look like the photo
on the right.
On the white paper, draw some small triangle and/or
rectangular shapes. These will be the flags for the
tops of the tall towers.
Color and decorate the flags any color you want. You
can use markers or paint to do this.
Once dry (if you used paint), cut the flag shapes.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
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This art lesson plan is made possible with support from Prime Time Palm Beach County, Inc., which receives significant funding for its overall
operations from the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County.
Haydee Ullfig is a Teaching Artist with Center for Creative Education in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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Instructions:
After cutting each flag, glue onto the tips of tooth-
picks. I used the decorative toothpicks only because
those were the only ones I had. You can use simple
toothpicks also.
Now you have four flags ready. Stick one flag to
each top of a tower. Make sure they are facing the
same way. The wind only blows them one way.
NOTE: I decided the windows would look better done
separately and the glued on, not drawn directly on to
the towers.
With the pencil draw window shapes as shown in
the photo on the right. Outline with a black marker.
Paint the inside with red paint or color with red
marker. With the black marker draw the bars in the
windows.
Cut each window.
Glue one window to the front of each tower.
MEDIEVAL CASTLE
Photo on the left shows the completed castle.
(I set up the castle on a black cardboard I had
and with cut out a front road out of grey paper).
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