Last Friday with my mixed Year 1 and 2 class

I had a castle day

It was a magical day of art and craft

It was a wonderful day of working together

Marking the midpoint of our castles topic

Next term we focus more on knights and dragons

This term we focused on the buildings themselves

We learned the technical language

Needed to describe a castle

We learned how castles changed through the ages

We studied their features

And what each was used for

I was so proud to hear my children

Describing their castles to their families

Using all those technical, historical terms

I invited the parents to join us for the afternoon

In hindsight it was not long enough

The children and their families were set two challenges

To make a castle out of junk

And

To make a castle out of biscuits

Both challenges had a time of a little over 20 minutes

It was just wonderful to see the children

Working together with friends and family

Smiling, laughing, talking, creating

Learning … as it should be

I was a proud teacher that day

An emotional teacher

So many of my pupils came up to me to say thank you

That it was the best day ever

That they would never forget this day

And I feel exactly the same way

What a fabulous day!

A magical, memorable day

I loved the day so much

I decided to recreate one of the challenges at home

With my own children

And my husband

Who it turns out is something of a master builder

Of biscuit castles!

To build a biscuit castle

You need

Pink wafer biscuits

Ice cream cornets

Butter icing

or

Marshmallow Fluff

A knife

Some spoons

And a whole lot of imagination

We all had a marvellous, messy time

Getting icky and sticky

As we created our castles

Complete with windows, doors and stairs

Inner walls

Outer walls

Battlements and turrets

Cannons

Murder holes

Our castles had them all

And what was not used for the building

Was soon eaten

Nothing went to waste

If you are looking for fun way

To spend a family afternoon

Build yourself a castle

Build a biscuit castle

With butter icing glue!