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Home / Early Learning / Preschool Arts and Crafts / Recycled Art Projects for Kids – Cardboard Castles

Recycled Art Projects for Kids – Cardboard Castles

Shared by Mary Catherine 4 Comments

The All Things Kids mamas are sharing ways to craft and play with recycled materials today!  Be sure to check out Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, House of Burke, Sugar Aunts, Crayon Box Chronicles, and Mamas Like Me for more recycled inspiration. In preschool, we delved into some recycled art projects for kids to make during a recent fairy tale theme.  Come check out how we created small cardboard castles, and one really large one!

Recycled Art Projects for Kids - Cardboard Castles

Table of Contents

  • cardboard castles are fun recycled art projects for kids to make
  • Done-for-You Preschool Resources

cardboard castles are fun recycled art projects for kids to make

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Recycled Materials
Toilet paper tubes
Paper towel tubes
Empty tissue boxes
Large, empty cardboard boxes

Other Materials
Glue
Glue gun
Acrylic paint

Prior to Creating
During our recent fairy tale theme, we read tons of books with castles in them.  We also looked at pictures of real castles from around the world.  Our awesome music teacher even found some fun songs about castles for the kiddos to sing!  Based on the books we read and the pictures we viewed, the kiddos knew how different castles could look.  This led to some great discussions about making our own castles!

A Castle for our Home Center
I knew I wanted to turn our dramatic play center (we just call it the “home center”) into a castle for a few weeks.  The children and I used a variety of large boxes their parents had sent in.  We worked together to unfold the boxes, and I cut them apart as needed.  We then used duct tape to tape our “castle” together.  We placed the largest box in the middle, with smaller box pieces on each side.  Using a box cutter, I created a door for the kids to use.  No, it wasn’t the prettiest or sturdiest cardboard castle – but the children and I worked hard on it.

the beginning of the cardboard castle for our home center - recycled art projects for kids

Once everything was put together, the children decided they wanted to paint the castle.  We probably should have done this part first, but oh well!  They used a variety of tempera paint to decorate the castle walls.  We ended up with a mix of white, blue, red, and pink.  The boys and girls were SO proud of their hard work on the castle!

Recycled Art Projects for Kids - painting the walls of our giant cardboard castle

We were able to keep the “castle” up for close to three weeks.  The children read, colored, and played in that castle every day during that time!  We had to recycle it after a few weeks, as it just wasn’t structurally sound at that point!  ðŸ™‚

Recycled Art Projects for Kids - reading and writing in our giant cardboard castle

Mini Cardboard Castles
The boys and girls enjoyed playing in their large castle, but some of them wanted small versions too.  For a few days, I placed smaller cardboard tubes and boxes out.  Using those recycled materials, the children created personal castles.  Some of them used regular white glue, while others asked for me to help out with the glue gun.

Recycled Art Projects for Kids - creating cardboard castles

When I set out the materials, I had no idea where the children would take this project.  Five of the kiddos REALLY got into it!  They stacked boxes on top of each other, glued tubes to each other to create flags, and even created beds for the royal family!  One of my girls even used a few tubes to make a dragon for her castle.

Recycled Art Projects for Kids - cardboard castles ready for painting

Once the mini castles had dried, the children wanted to paint them.  I set out some acrylic paints and brushes and let the children go at it.  I loved watching them paint, and it was especially fun to see them work together on this part.  Needless to say, we ended up with some very colorful castles.

Recycled Art Projects for Kids - working together to paint a very colorful cardboard castle

Have you tried any recycled art projects for kids recently?  If not, I hope this look into ours has inspired you!  We didn’t do anything remotely fancy, but we all had such a blast planning and creating!

Recycled Art Projects for Kids - All Things Kids series

Be sure to see what the rest of my All Things Kids buds are up to today:

10 Ways to Craft and Play with Recycled Materials from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

15 Recycled Crafts and Activities from Crayon Box Chronicles

15+ Recycled Materials Crafts and Activities for Kids from Mamas Like Me

Toilet Paper Roll Easter Egg Prints from House of Burke

Developmental and Learning Crafts and Activities for Kids Using Recycled Materials from Sugar Aunts

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week, all while balancing other teaching responsibilities and a personal life, can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!

Preschool Teacher 101 is excited to share with you some amazing lesson plans, activity packs, and other resources made specifically for preschool. We offer a wide variety of themes that are frequently used in preschool classrooms as well as some less common (but super interesting) themes. Click on the image below to learn more about our beach lesson plans!

Beach Preschool Lesson Plans
Beach Lesson Plans

Join The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 today for exclusive access to our amazing products. And we even have three different membership options to suit your needs!

Filed Under: Preschool Arts and Crafts Tagged With: Earth Day, Fairy Tales, Pretend Play, Recycled

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Comments

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  1. Anik says

    April 8, 2014 at 3:39 am

    I love recycling projects. I’m sure making a castle is something my Mr Frog would love! 🙂 Thanks for inspiration!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      May 14, 2014 at 11:36 pm

      Thanks so much, Anik. You always leave such kind words. Let me know if Mr. Frog tries out the cardboard castles. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Shaunna @ Fantastic Fun and Learning says

    April 16, 2014 at 8:42 am

    My kids would have a ball constructing and decorating their own castles. What a great use of recycled cardboard. Thanks for sharing in the Discover & Explore linky. I”m featuring this post today.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      May 14, 2014 at 11:42 pm

      Thanks, Shaunna! I appreciate the feature! 🙂 The children absolutely loved making and decorating these castles.

      Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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