Step-by-Step: Making a Castle Presentation Board

We enjoy making our presentation boards each year for our homeschool group's Around the World Day (see also: 2007 and 2006). However, for our recent Night at the Museum party, we were able to get really creative. We made our board look like a castle, since we were representing knights and the Middle Ages. It was easy and the kids and I thought it turned out great.

What You'll Need:

• Tri-fold presentation board
• X-acto knife
• Straight edge
• pencil
• sponge
• paint (we used tempera)

What You'll Do:


Step 1: Using your pencil and straight edge, mark the lines to cut out the parapet design along the top of the presentation board. Carefully cut out these section with the X-acto knife.





Step 2: Draw the outline of the drawbridge and any other aspects of the castle wall that you may not want painted in a block appearance.





Step 3: Mix the paint for the castle wall in a shallow pan and use a sponge to dab it onto the presentation board. You want to let plenty of the white board show through to give it a block wall appearance. We got the paint too think, at first, and the left-hand side of the castle doesn't have as nice an appearance as the rest of it.





Step 4: Add the details. Paint white outlines for the castle blocks to look like mortar. Paint the drawbridge and any additional features that you've given your castle.





**Note: These same principals can be used on a large cardboard box, such as a large appliance box, to create a play castle that you can actually climb inside. That was my plan, but I had trouble getting the large boxes together. I had planned to get at least three and cut doorways inside to connect them together and make a large castle with three different sections.


Have fun!