Sunday, February 9, 2014

Making the Drawbridge

Every castle needs a drawbridge.  “That door that goes over the water” as the children put it.  I borrowed a toy castle from the kindergarten class to look at how the drawbridge worked.
      jan 23 029 jan 24 018
After working it a few times we learned how to attach the string to our door.
  jan 28 011 jan 28 012
Using a pencil, as a simple tool, we poked holes in the cardboard then pushed
the string through.
                    jan 28 013
Once that was complete the boys pulled up the drawbridge but quickly realized that it wouldn’t stay up.  One of them suggested we needed to tie it.
   jan 28 019 jan 28 023
I happened to have removeable wall hooks with sticky backs (if you have a chance to visit my centre you will see the size of my storage room and that it is very full).  We attached the hooks at the sides of the door and they tried it again.
    jan 28 025 jan 28 026
We also learned that we needed a system to let the people inside know that someone wanted in so the door wouldn't get ripped.  Knocking works well and waiting for the drawbridge to be lowered taught us patience.
    jan 28 027 jan 28 030 
                  It's a success and still surviving after a week of use.