Crowns and Castles

This month’s theme is Alphabet House! My group was excited about castles when we learned about the types of homes. Not many people ever get to live in a castle, but it sure is fun to pretend! We also learned about apartments, RV’s and regular family homes. Come and see what we learned about Crowns and Castles.

Castle Crowns Creative Art

We need crowns if we’re going to live in a castle! The gems Mother Goose Time included are pretty but small so I pulled out some of the gems I have been waiting to use since they are easier for little hands to manipulate.

Lots of glue helps them stick!

When you get tired of waiting for the glue….

Beautiful crowns for a princess…

…or a prince!

In the Castle Community Challenge

We don’t have a castle playhouse or even a tent anymore so I created a castle on the floor with masking tape. It draws everyone’s attention and engages the imagination. Each of the kids took turns wearing their crowns and standing in the castle while singing:

_____ in the castle,

_____ in the castle,

She is the queen today,

_____ in the castle.

It’s a simple activity but the repetitive, turn-taking and recognition of each child is valuable. This activity helps children build social awareness skills, while they sing each other’s names and encourage each other during a game.

Letter Gems

The kings and queens have gems in the castle! I wrote letters A-E on little plastic pieces (divider pieces from plastic craft boxes I bought at the Dollar Tree) for our gems. Using the letter cards, that I three-hole punch and put in a binder, I explained that we were looking for letter B gems.

Oh, this was fun! Everyone was looking for letter B! This is how Mother Goose Time makes learning fun.

We continued this game for each letter. For some of the older ones, it was way easy but they still enjoyed it and review is always good.

Dragon Den

Some castles had tunnels and many believe they went to dragon dens. I started the dragon craft that was provided with a paper bag and dragon parts that you cut apart and assemble. First I used the paper bag dragon as a puppet to get everyone’s attention. It’s amazing how simple tools like a puppet are so effective!

We created a dragon’s den with a cardboard box and blankets draped over the top. This dragon isn’t very scary but it sure was fun!

I put out our tunnel out for the children to crawl through and see the dragon’s den at the end. They pretended to be scared but I know it was a just a game.

That wraps up Castles and Crowns! More Alphabet House coming up!