Cardboard castle craft project for social studies, medieval history, book-based activities

Here's a craft project that can be used for anything from home, to classroom to youth theater: a cardboard castle. Make it grand enough to grace a stage or simple enough to stow in the closet for children's rainy day fun. Create one for preschool learning centers or high school history projects. This castle project makes a perfect complement to medieval social studies units. It can be a book-based literature response activity or book report alternative.

To start, make cardboard castle walls. Cut open two large, recycled cardboard refrigerator boxes. Tape two boxes together to make an octagon castle "keep." Cut cardboard castle battlements. Castle walls had a series of crenelations and merlons (squared edge thingys) along the top. Here are free printable patterns for medieval crafts and castle design ideas. Cut cardboard castle keep windows: Draw a four-pane window and cut openings.

Decorate recycled cardboard castle. Draw in bricks and a medieval family crest. Cut a drawbridge opening in the side of cardboard castle. Attach yarn to both sides of to lower and raise drawbridge. Cut holes in the top to tie drawbridge closed when the royal inhabitants aren't receiving company. Place blue blankets around the outside for the castle moat. Fill with stuffed animal dragons, fish, alligators and other aquatic creatures.

Make flags for cardboard castle. Royals had ancient family crests that symbolized their clan. These were placed on banners flown when the family was in residence. Banners were carried standards into battles. Have kids design their royal family crest. Here are free printable heraldry stencils for medieval crafts for kids. Make banners on squares of fabric cut from old bed sheets or towels. Draw or paint crest using permanent marker or fabric paint.

Make secret entrances for your recycled cardboard castle. Line chairs up to make a crawl-through tunnel entrance into castle. Drape sheets, blankets and bed linens over tunnel. Establish a
dungeon. Make a parapet (walkway) by placing several chairs or a bench along the inside edge of the castle. Soldiers keep lookout here and send prisoners to sit under the chairs in the dungeon sit under bench. Fashion a turret. Put a collapsible net laundry hamper upside down on a
chair inside the castle. Children crawl into hamper and onto chair to look out of the turret.

Earth Day recycled trash crafts: Cross-curricular Cellphone Cases

Looking for jazzy recycled trash craft projects for Earth Day? How about homemade cellphone cases? You can pick up cheap cases for iPhone or Android and decorate them. Empty the recycle bin and let students create mosaic or patterned cellphone cases from recycled trash. Make cross-curricular crafts. 

Math crafts: Make tesseracts, mosaics, 3D images, spirals (to teach Fibonacci numbers) and other mathematical patterns. 

History and social studies crafts: make cellphone cases with timelines, statues of famous people, Egyptian scarabs or jeweled reliquaries. 

Geography crafts: Draw maps on cellphone cases. Create your own treasure map! 

Literature crafts for lesson plans: Make a cellphone case that resembles a book, or index from card catalog. Choose a favorite book and make cellphone cases on that theme. This could be an extension for hands-on book reports. 

These Earth Day recycle bin trash crafts are perfect for interactive art lesson plans too. 

 

School Service Projects, Student Community Volunteer Activities for Kids

School Service Project, Community Volunteer Activities Use this lent alms giving project to practice spiritual exercises of fasting, prayer and sharing. Service project can be adapted for public school use. Good way to get school required community volunteer credits for high school students. May be used for alternative education extra credit, too. Activities focus on Social Justice, World Church, missions and prayer. Muslims may wish to use this project for Islamic zakat giving. Jewish families might use this for an alms giving activity, too. Lesson plans include social studies and math extensions; multiplication, division, counting, sorting, grouping and story problems. Great education for all children. Use for CCD, religious education, classroom service project, homeschool, scout troop, 4H group and more!

* Collect gently used clothing for warming centers.

* Wash used stuffed animals to a children's hospital or nursing home. Sew a little heart on donations for sweet little no-cost good deeds.

* Print and color Bible coloring pages, write messages on the back and send to lonely senior citizens.

* Visit a nursing home and lead a sing-along. This is great friendship building volunteer work for kids!

* Bring tea and cookies to a shut-in neighbor; stay to visit. Gifts of time are the highest form of almsgiving.

* Shovel a disabled person's walk (or mow grass in warmer climates). These no-cost good deeds are so appreciated.

* Plant a tree and nurture it. What great donations of time and talent.

* Pick up trash in the park. The whole community benefits from this ROAK.

* Call grandma.

* Skype or FaceTime with your annoying older brother in college.

* Fold your sister's clothes.

* Tidy dad's work area.

* Cook, serve and clean up dinner. Mom will love these donations of time and talent.

* Donate used puzzles to the library.

* Repair gently used toys and bring to the mission thrift store.

* Drop used books in Green Earth Books boxes.

* Teach your little brother to play a song on your guitar.

* Knit a blanket for a new baby (little blankets make great starter project for kid knitters).

* Bike to the store to pick up your elderly neighbor's prescription.

* Fix up your old bike and give to the neighbor's child.

* Wash gently used clothes and drop in Goodwill donations box.

* Make a meal for someone who had surgery.

* Let your little sister pick the TV show.

* Do volunteer work for kids in your family. Play Legos with your little brother.

* Have a free garage sale. Or put gently used give-aways on the curb for people to take. This volunteer work for kids can have a network of positive connections.

* Fill a bag of groceries and leave it on your laid-off neighbor's porch.

* Draw and frame a picture for your priest's, rabbi's, minister's office.

* Write your doctor a note thanking her for caring for you.

* Find out what the food pantry needs, go shopping, bring groceries.

* Paint a pretty mug for your teacher and fill it with her favorite coffee.

* Attend a funeral (this isn't exactly volunteer work for kids, but it is a very generous gift and not always so easy to give).

* Cheerfully clean your room without being asked.

* Leave a plant for your mail carrier.

* Babysit your irritating cousins for free (awesome ROAK!)

* Help your grumpy neighbor wash his car (this volunteer work for kids may not involve money, but it will cost patience!)

* Eat only vegetables once a week and put donate money to food pantry.

Tips for Substitute Teachers

Are you substitute teaching? Better you than me! Lol just joshin. Seriously, I subbed for 5 years and have developed this substitute teacher survival guide. Here are 10+ coping strategies including tips on classroom management, student interaction, discipline, teaching strategies and more. 

Briefly introduce yourself briefly and get to work: Name and a few quick details suffice, no long rambling filibuster, please. Students have work to do and your job is to help them. You are also not the entertainer. I know of one sub who brings his guitar with him. That might be alright for very young grades, but it's really not appropriate for junior high or high school. 

Bring some activities appropriate to the subject you are teaching. Most teachers leave lesson plans, but I have subbed in emergencies when we could not do the lessons or when the teacher didn't have time to write much down. It's nice to have something up your sleeve just in case.

Follow lesson plans. Teachers have so much to fit in that they need to know that when they are gone the students will get what is needed for that day.

Learn students' names. This means a great deal to students, especially older kids. They may act like they don't care, but they do. I try to get names down in the first half hour. I have a horrible memory, but I make the effort. Your day will go much smoother. Kids respond much better if call them by name. 

Be upfront and genuine. Never hint, threaten or use sarcasm. Tell them what they need to do. You don't have to go into a big spiel. You'll find out soon enough who's not on the same page.

Don't give hecklers airtime. Don't waste the rest of the class's time dealing with problem kids. Politely and calmly warn them. Keep going with the lesson. When everyone is working independently, deal with the problem if it is still occurring. 

Seek solution. If a child is causing trouble, politely ask what's up. Listen compassionately. If she settles down, great. Move on. If not, give her the option to get to work or go to the office, because she can't disrupt others. If he's out of control, call the office. Explain the situation. Continue to be present for the rest of the class. 

Redirect or diffuse potential bombs. If you see a kid about to go off, redirect attention. If that doesn't help, get help. Don't get in the middle of fights. Have a parapro remove student to a neutral zone where her anger won't endanger anyone else. If it's just a disagreement, a class discussion can be useful. But never patronize. 

Greet students when you see them about. If they seem comfortable with it, acknowledge them. I sub in my local area and countless students stop to say "Hi" when we're out and about. 

Learn to be a tech guru: Familiarize yourself with all the current teaching tools: overhead projectors, ELMO, software on computers, Smartboards. 

Wear comfortable clothes and shoes: You never know what you will need to do. I've dealt with fire, tornado and lock-down drills, diaper changes, assemblies on dusty floors, messy projects, vomiting, class pets, nosebleeds, lunch messes, injuries, phys. Ed., mice, broken bones and pants wetting. 

Bring a water bottle: This is a must with Covid 19. On the best of days, most drinking fountains don't work, put out bath water or have UFO's in them (Unidentified Floating Objects).

.

Keep your personal views out of the classroom: I knew of a sub who got into quite a heated political debate with a student and another who tried to hold kids hostage. 

Ask other staff if you have questions: Naturally there will be some students who try to 'get away' with things. I don't trust or distrust students; if it's not in black and white, I ask support staff.

Never bully: I was called in to replace a sub who threatened a student. The class was tense and wary. I had to work overtime to show them that they were safe and that I would handle problems fairly. I have subbed in this class many times since and we have a good rapport.

Don't trash talk other subs. In the above situation, I let them vent for a few minutes and said that I was sorry and that they did not deserve that. Then we got to work. Least said soonest mended. 

Smile and laugh; relax: I don't know of any sub being eaten by students.

Don't try to change school rules. Whether you agree or disagree, follow building policies. Don't bend rules to earn brownie points with students. 

Don't ever belittle, mock, embarrass any student. Ever. 

Don't be thin-skinned: I've dealt with students who are rude, who curse, who even yell at me. But in all the schools I've been in, I have never encountered a student who's issue was with me personally. Don't let them browbeat you, but do keep in mind that students may just be hungry, angry, lonely, tired or ill. Don't take it personally. 

Try really hard to help them complete their assignments and understand the material: Students are generally very grateful for your help. If we have to take notes, I write them on the board. 

Keep moving. Don't be a desk potato. Walk around the classroom and see if anyone needs help. Watch for potential problems but also needs. 

I wish you well as a substitute teacher. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.