Design your own Castle
If you are able view the video clip Castles for Kids Free School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AesgRREuCQI
Castles were first built in Britain by the Normans from France during the Norman Conquest. They appeared sometime after 1066 during the period in history known as the Middle Ages. Castles were built for about a 500 year period of time.
The word castle comes from a Latin word meaning “fortress”.
The first castles were made from wood, but eventually they were built from stone.
It is believed that as many as 1000 Motte and Bailey Castles were built in England by the Normans. These early castles were made of wood. The word “motte” means “cod of earth” and the word “bailey” means “enclosure”.
The moat was a ring of water surrounding a castle. If someone wanted to get over the moat, the drawbridge would have to be cranked down from inside the castle.
The walls of the stone castles could be as thick as 33 feet. Once the cannon was created, no castles could stand that kind of attack. The cannon balls could easily destroy the stone walls no matter how thick they were.
Castles were dark and cold, but they offered protection from enemies. Castles were very expensive to build and run. It could cost thousands of dollars to build just part of a castle. The workers might have had to destroy whole forests to build part of a castle, and then to heat it after it was built.
Castles were in lots of different countries. There were castles in Spain, Germany, Britain, Japan, and many more countries. They all had different styles.
Windsor castle is one of the many homes of Queen Elizabeth of England. It was originally built as a Motte and Bailey castle. https://kidskonnect.com/history/castles/
Using the directions below, or your own creativity, design a castle. Remember to use a straight edge, if you don’t have access to a ruler, the side of a box or book can work nicely, you can also use the side panel of a cereal box or pasta box to create rectangles of even sizes. You can even cut up recycled cardboard to create rectangles or window shape tracers so your windows will be even in size. As seen in the photos above, castles could be symmetrical (the same on both sides or asymmetrical different on each side) how will you draw your castle. How will you show the texture? Will there be straight lines to represent the granite blocks or bricks? Or will it be rounded stones. How will your castle be landscaped? What season is it in your drawing?
