The kids and I had a wonderful time creating sand castles in a myriad of ways this past week.
Along the way, we may have practiced creating shapes, sharpened our cutting ability, and improved our fine motor.
But ssshhhh don’t tell them, they were having way too much fun to be thinking about “skills.”
Sand Castle Invitation to Create
Supplies
The kids were given a photo of an elaborate shape based sand castle.
They were also provided the following supplies:
- sand sheet (paper with dotted pattern like sand)*
- background paper (blue card stock)*
- cellophane*
- sand*
- paint
- glue
- scissors
***These materials were provided by Mother Goose Time.
Discuss
To encourage discussion, Mother Goose Time offered us the following question,
“How would you decorate a sand castle?”
- Nature Girl (four years old) was certain that it would contain seashells and a moat.
- Owl (three years old) wanted to know more about creating a drawbridge, so he could drive things on it. He’s majorly into all things transportation these days.
Set Up
We displayed the inspiration photo of the sand castle and handed out supplies.
I gave the “big kids” all the materials at once including the sand, which thrilled them.
Guppy is only 18 months, so he ripped some paper and I helped him glue some of them to the paper.
At the very end the “big kids” and I helped him to sprinkle some sand on some glue.
To avoid the “messy parts” getting too out of hand with my youngest, I often use height to my advantage and have the two “big kids” work on a table that’s a bit out of his reach.
As you can see he still managed to find a plastic bag to chew on anyway.
I had no idea when I became a Mom that keeping little kids alive would take so much work!
Prompts
Mother Goose Time also provides questions that can helps if the kids get stuck or are unsure what they might want to do with some of the materials
- What rooms do you think are in the castle?
- What kind of castle or building are you going to build?
- Do you want to cut shapes from the sand sheet?
- How will you use the cellophane in your design?
- Where will you put the sand?
Nature Girl set about making shapes with the sand paper and cutting the cellophane to make water.
Owl put glue on everything.
Within minutes both were all about the sand.
Looking back, I think I would have held off on handing them the sand until they had cut and glued their sand castles.
The “big kids” were very interested in being able to label their own creations.
So, I let them make the first letter of their name with glue and then sprinkle on sand.
Someone (OK, me) spilled the remaining sand before Nature Girl could complete hers, so we grabbed some small pasta to finish her “E.”
Owl wanted to use the pasta too, so he has more than one letter on his paper.
Crazy, wonderful kids!
I wasn’t about to stop them from practicing making letters just because the activity called for shapes 🙂
Build a Castle Game
Mother Goose Time has been including more and more age appropriate table top games into their curriculum.
This one was a huge hit with all three kids.
There was some math and some color recognition required.
What they remember is that they got to play with fun, new blocks and build sand castles!
This precious baby was concentrating so hard on putting his blocks together.
Go fine motor skills go!
This is Nature Girl taking her turn contributing to the group castle we built using the game.
It wasn’t surprising to any of us that Owl was determined to build his as high as possible.
Or that it frequently crashed sending small blocks ALL OVER the back porch.
Fortunately, the “big kids” have been well versed in the danger of choking hazards for the baby.
We has a race to pick up every single time one of Owl’s creations exploded……..
You’ll also note in the background, Nature Girl quickly mastered the act of building in 3D with these blocks.
Mother Goose Time has been such a good fit for our family!
We are excited and grateful to be able to share our experiences as Mother Goose Time ambassadors with you.
If you think it might be a good fit for yours, feel free to reach out say hello.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see more of our fun creations!
