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.

Free TI 30, TI-83, TI-84 Online Calculator Download

Free TI 30 Online Scientific Calculator Trial Download

The TI-30 scientific calculator from Texas Instruments is the required calculator for most middle school math classes. TI-83 and Ti-84 are graphing calculators used in high school math classes. These calculators can be pricey. So try the free calculator downloads and graphing calculator apps available here. 

TI-30 scientific calculators have function keys for algebra and algebraic equations, trigonometry, scientific math, decimal to fraction converter, unit converter, complex numbers and RPS.

EEWeb has free online scientific calculator tools for laptop and desktop computer software.

Texas Instruments website  has free downloads for their products also. The online TI-30 scientific calculator software can be purchased for $14.95. The advantage in using online scientific calculators is that handheld are easier to lose or get stolen. 

Google Play has free graphing calculator apps for Android users. iTunes has free TI 30 apps as well. If you can find a good freebie, I suggest buying an app for the iPhone or Android. This turns makes the device into a calculator and means one less tool to lose. 

Free printable Greek mythology, Percy Jackson and the Oympians

If you love Percy Jackson books, you'll want these free printable Greek mythology coloring pages. FantasyJr. has twelve free printable Greco-Roman coloring pages of the Olympians.  Karen's Whimsey has dozens of free printable mythology and Ancient Greece coloring pages. Color the Olympians, gods and goddesses, heroes, mythological monsters, beasts and creatures. Color free printable famous works of art featuring the Greek pantheon, Satyrs, Circe, the Sirens, Odysseus and many more characters from Greek mythology. Print coloring pages from ancient Rome, as well gods in Roman mythology.Coloring.ws has a complete free printable Greek mythology coloring pages on the Olympians of Ancient Greece. This site also contains free printable maps of Greece.

Free Printable City of Ember Lesson Activities

The "City of Ember" book series, by Jeanne DuPrau, (2003) is a science-fiction post-apocalyptic fantasy series loved by students and educators alike. Many elementary, intermediate and middle schools are incorporating City of Ember books into their classroom curriculum. With the release of a movie version students can read and study the books and follow up with the film version for comparison. Here are free printable City of Ember book activities, movie study guides and lesson plans.

The series chronologically is City of Ember, People of Sparks, Prophet of Yonwood and Diamond of Darkhold. Not all have been made into film so there are movie study guides only for City of Ember. But there are book activities for all books. Here are free printable lesson plans for teaching the City of Ember book series. Lesson Planet is a pay site with some free book activities to print. Here arefree printable City of Ember lesson plans. Scholastic also charges for many of their printables. But here is a City of Ember book discussion guide to print free. 

This free printable lesson plans kit includes story maps, worksheets, book activities, character webs, comprehension questions, movie study guides, vocabulary, grammar, symbolism, cause and effect, analysis and application questions, synthesis and evaluation questions, book activities, games, reading response rubrics, charts, quizzes and more. The City of Ember books are a dystopian series that tells of a people that has suffered depletion. They've gone underground, to re-emerge at a given time in the future. City of Ember is Orwellian science fiction, reminiscent of 1984, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Use book activities and movie study guides for units on science fiction.

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).

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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.