Our Fairy Tale Village was inspired by the Building Things unit in the science curriculum and the many fairy tales we had been reading in class.  

 

Our project began with a brainstorming session of all the homes we encountered in the stories.  We then made a chart of the homes, what we might find in those homes, and the committee members that would like to work on the home.
	We began by collecting a wide variety of recyclable materials.  Milk cartons, cardboard boxes, film containers, berry baskets, cans, etc...  We began by exploring our materials and learning how to build with them so they are sturdy.  We knocked many of these starting castles down.
Our next step was to build a castle that was sturdy and could be taped together.  Here the students are just beginning the taping process.
	Our next step was to paper maché the castles so they would be stronger and easier to paint.
Painting our castles and the Styrofoam bases made our castles come to life!
	After our painting was finished, we used scraps of carpet, fabric, modeling clay, little boxes, etc... to make the insides of our castles.
Here are some examples of our completed homes.
	We displayed our homes for all the parents to see during our Demonstration of learning.  The committee members also wrote about whose house they made and any special features those houses had.

Page submitted by Kathy Tomnuk and her wonderful Grade one class at St. Gerard!