Castle of Shapes
What you need:
- 1 piece copy paper (or something similar)
- Assorted paper shapes: squares, rectangles, circles, triangles in a variety of sizes
- Gluestick
- Scissors
- Optional: markers or crayons
What you do:
- Gather a variety of paper shapes – you can cut some yourself by tracing things like the end of a cracker box, a drinking glass, a small envelope, and so on. You can use scrap paper, old newspaper, junk mail, leftover scrapbook paper, construction paper – anything that isn’t needed in your household any more.
- Arrange the shapes on the copy paper so that together they form a castle. You might put a large square at the bottom front with tall, thin rectangles on both sides and smaller ones above that. Use triangles for the tower rooftops and cut circles or ovals for windows.
- When you like the arrangement, glue the pieces down. Add details with markers or crayons.
- Early Literacy: Make the shapes different colors like the castle on the left (above). Talk about each one as you place it together with your little one on the paper. “Let’s put the blue triangle on top. Where is the red rectangle?”
- Stamp or draw repeating patterns to decorate the castle, such as a row of three blue diamonds, one red circle, three blue diamonds, etc.
- Have fun! Make a city of castles to hang in your room and post a picture of your creation on the Library’s Facebook page (or email it to annelmay@franklintwp.org).
