Sand Castles and Fairy Tales

Mrs. Forbes' Kindergarten

Our class has been interested in castles from the beginning of the year. It started with reading the book, Sky Castle.

Children were building castles in the sand for months. I provided different containers and implements for them to use to build their magical castles. The children also incorporated animals, people, flags, and labels for their castles. They even created water-filled moats surrounding their castles with alligators, sharks, and snakes protecting the castle. They also explored the properties of sand and would add water to get it to the right building consistency to hold forms and shapes. The children worked together negotiating, planning, creating one big castle because of space limitations of the sand table.

	Here is a sampling of the molding toys that children used in their play. As you can see, some are purchased toys, while others are common household recyclable items.
This castle interest continued into fairy tales, and we read Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales every day. Children would recite rhymes and retell these fairy tales using props - flannel board, felt, toys, and artifacts. Our play house was decorated on the outside to look like a castle and children would create spontaneous drama enacting the stories we had been reading in class. We decided to culminate this interest and study by holding a Feast. The parents brought in wonderful party food for us, and we all dressed up in Story Book characters.