If you have a preschooler, toddler, or young child at home who enjoys stories of knights, castles, catapults and shields, you will love this post. It includes a whole host of play ideas for preschoolers and activities for young children centered on a medieval theme.
Full disclosure: Kiwi Crate provided me with their Castles & Catapults Kiwi Crate. All opinions are my own. This product far exceeded my expectations and I highly recommend the crafts and activities for kids from Kiwi Crate. I found the Castles & Catapults Kiwi Crate so inspiring and my boys loved it so much, I’ve created a FREE printable pack for you to create your own coat of arms and shields at home. The FREE Shield Printables pack includes coloring pages, a matching and memory game, and everything you need to create your own shield design. Scroll down to read about my FREE Shield printables. Affiliate links included for your convenience.
Preschool Activities with Castles, Catapults and FREE Shield Printables
Our Castles & Catapults Kiwi Crate box included:
A cardboard medieval castle with felt flags
Five cut-out cardboard characters – a King, Queen, Jester, Knight and Dragon
Over 30 stickers to decorate the castle and characters
Two instructional booklets to help parents set up the castle and catapult
A book of activities “Explore! – A play and learn magazine for kids” featuring crafts, games and recipes from medieval times
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The Castles & Catapults “Explore! – A play and learn magazine for kids” included:
A story about defending the castle
A page of drawing ideas to help kids draw medieval images from simple shapes
A hidden pictures puzzle
Directions to create a paper plate crown
Medieval paper dress-up dolls
Facts about Medieval towns
Make your own story worksheet
Homemade ink recipe
Snack time recipe
DIY stained glass craft
Create your own family crest craft and activity
Additional projects, videos, and other medieval fun, visit kiwiwcrate.com/castles
For creative fun on your tablet or smartphone, visit kiwi crate.com/play
We’ve spent nearly two days with our Kiwi Crate box and we’ve only completed a few of the activities. I think it will take our family an entire week to explore all the fun things included in our Kiwi Crate box.
We started out by building the castle. The castle and stickers are wonderful for increasing dexterity and fine motor skill play. After we put together the cardboard characters – a King, Queen, Knight, Jester and Dragon, my two-year old told me a story about how the dragon was hungry and was going to eat the other characters. The knight would have to save everyone. I loved how this activity inspired him to make up a story about the characters.
We also made our own stained glass windows. They are not real stained glass, but they are fun to make and the boys easily spent an hour on their windows. My four year old asked if we could make more stained glass windows tomorrow. I look forward to making more and seeing what kinds of stained glass windows he creates.
How to make a Stained Glass Craft for Kids
The Kiwi Crate “Explore” magazine included in our crate had slightly different directions (they use black tape), but our activity was inspired by our Castles & Catapults Kiwi Crate box. To make a stained glass craft you’ll need:
Wax paper
Scissors for kids
Tape
Glue
Black construction paper (or black tape)
Tissue paper in various colors
Directions:
Cut the tissue paper into small 1″ – 2″ pieces. You can make a variety of shapes including rectangles, triangles and squares.
Cut the black construction paper into eight 1/2 inch strips (makes two windows). Save the rest of construction paper to make bars or shadow shapes in the stained glass windows.
Use the black construction paper strip to determine the length of your wax paper. Cut a square piece of wax paper off the roll based upon the length of your construction paper strip. Our stained glass windows were about 10.5 inches square.
Tape the wax paper to the construction paper on the underside of the paper and turn it underside up.
Children can add tissue paper to the underside of the window using glue or tape.
Once all the glue is dried, hang the stained glass window on a window with the underside against the window.
The light will show through revealing the stained glass window design.
Preschool Activities with Castles, Catapults and FREE Shield Printables
Our Castles & Catapults box also included a wonderful DIY catapult. It’s a fabulous activity for kids because the catapult adjusts using a velcro strip. Depending upon where you attach the block you can adjust the angle and trajectory of the catapult. It’s great for teaching kids some early engineering skills. The kit includes a ping pong ball and pom pom balls. We also launched some plastic Easter eggs for extra kid fun. You can teach your kids the difference between launching something soft and launching something hollow and hard (ping pong ball). My boys had a blast with the catapult.
Even after my two year-old went down for an afternoon nap, my four year-old continued to enjoy playing with the castles and catapults play set. He spent the entire afternoon making up stories, adding stickers to the castle, cutting and decorating shields, and playing with the catapult. Outdoor temperatures dropped into the teens so it was wonderful to be indoors and enjoying a day of castles and catapults with the boys.
FREE Shield Printables
One of the activities in the Kiwi Crate “Explore” magazine is to create a family crest. As an extension of the idea, I gathered up some colorful shields, a castle, castle towers, dragon, lion, cross, crown, sun, and shield and compiled everything into a free downloadable printable pack. The pack includes a blank shield and lots of images to help you create your own family crest. The smaller shields can be used as inspiration or you can print them out and create cards for a matching or memory game.
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To download your free copy of these FREE Shield Printables just click the blue “download now” button.
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Books and Toys for more Castles and Catapults Play
The Kiwi Crate “Explore” magazine included a section called “Parent Resources.” Some of the recommended books are listed here.
The Knight and the Dragon – A knight and a dragon, both perfectly content on their own, realize that they are not living up to society’s expectations of them and begin preparing for THE FIGHT. They’re terrible at it, though, and fare much better in new occupations. What a great lesson, and what a creative way to tell it. The book itself contains very few words, but the detailed, engaging pictures make it appropriate for a variety of ages. Perfect for kids who love stories of knights and dragons with some extra humor thrown in – making it a book that even adults will enjoy. Learn more: The Knight and the Dragon.King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson – Henry Alfred Grummorson, great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, aspires to be legendary knight like his ancestor King Arthur. When he turns six, he rides out with his trusty donkey on a quest to find his adversaries. His journey leads him to a Dragon, a Cyclops, a Griffin and the Leviathin. Instead of ferocious beasts and epic battles, he finds something he never knew he needed. Learn More: King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson.
Jane and the Dragon -Jane longs to be a knight, but everyone laughs at her. Everyone, that is, except the court jester, who lends her a small suit of armor to help make her dream come true. And when an enormous dragon swoops in and steals the prince, Jane quickly gets the chance to prove herself! With lessons in acceptance and forgiveness this is a great read for kids. Learn More: Jane and the Dragon.
Our favorite toys for even more Medieval Inspired Play
Imaginext Play Castle – My boys will spend hours playing with this castle. It includes interactive toys that cause the castle to talk and make battle sounds. We include dinosaurs, superheros and even princesses in our castle play. With walls that break apart, a working drawbridge, doors and windows that open and close, catapult, and eagle’s nest that launches disks, it’s an awesome toy for kids. Learn More: Imaginext Eagle Talon Castle from Fisher-Price. Makes a wonderful Christmas present or birthday gift!
Cardboard Coloring Castle – Birthday Express also offers this super fun cardboard coloring castle. It was only $20 and has led to hours of fun and play for my preschoolers. It’s super sturdy and fun to color. With ledges inside you can pile on knights, horses and more for fun castle play. If you have a little princess in your life, like my beautiful niece picture here, check out my FREE Princess Party printables. Click here to buy your very own: Cardboard Coloring Castle.
I hope you find this list of books, toys, games and activities inspiring and helpful for creating some castle themed play.
Kiwi Crate Christmas
Kiwi Crate also offers some amazing Christmas themed gifts. Click the image or link to learn more about all their wonderful fun crafts and activities for kids. Shop Kiwi Crate
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