Previous years, I used a castle model that was really too large for the math project I had in mind. I have always wanted to make my own to fit my classroom needs and viola, here it is!
The model is a stone keep castle with a keep, the stone building in the middle, and surrounding curtain wall with towers. The project focuses primarily on area and perimeter but has a host of other skills such as counting by fractions (halves), measuring to the nearest centimeter, writing equations, using an area model, adding large sums, and more.
The castle is completed in three stages. The first stage focuses on the floor plans for the keep. For each floor, students practice writing equations for the area and perimeter of each room before finding the area of the whole floor using an area model.....or not if a different multiplication method is preferred. More on area models later! A helpful teacher's example is included to use whole class before jumping in to the two floors of the keep. (The teacher's example is a freebie to check out the project, by the way! Go ahead and help yourself!)
The second stage features the Castle Architect Book with a page dedicated to each and every type of castle wall in the model. Students measure and separate the battlements on top of the wall from the main area of the wall on the real model and keep track of measurements and calculations in the Architect Book. Irregular rectangular area practice? Why, yes, indeed! I love projects that combine multiple math skills. It feels more purposeful than just endless worksheets. Students find the area of each wall of the castle before completing a summary page to find the area of the whole castle!
The third stage is really what the students are waiting for. The castle model, finally! Now that the math is out of the way.....let's build a castle! 😉 You know that's what they are thinking, right?! Starting with the keep, students insert the floor plans to the model keep and build the curtain wall around it.
You can see the second floor plan in the picture to the right. (Ignore my cute slipper on the stair, please!) The first floor is visible through the keep doors or when you pick up the keep. You can glue it down too and have it tilt up to see the floor plan.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the final product in all its glory. A castle model that fits so nicely on the desk. The previous version did not and required a lot of floor space. While I am proud of my previous resources for sure, for some reason I am really attached to this one. It's a castle!! It makes my inner child cheer!
So....head on over to Morsel Tidbits to check out this project if you are interested.
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| Find it here! |
What? Just the castle model you say? Sure, you can find the castle model on its own right here for those fantasy or fairy tale writing projects, or book reports, or other fun themed projects. To end, I'll just leave this picture right here too.
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