Can you build a castle for the Little Mermaid?

The Little Mermaid wants to build a new castle under the sea. Help her find a design that’s “fin-tastic”.

Objective: Design and build a castle for the Little Mermaid.

STEAM Challenge: Can you build a castle for the Little Mermaid?

Materials:

Little Mermaid drawing prompt and crayons or markers

Moon sand (or other types of building clay like modeling clay/model magic/play dough or even wet sand),  Natural materials such as twigs, shells or glass beads

Optional: Cardboard or Recycled Plastic box for the base for castle

Tutorial:

Step 1: Read The Little Mermaid.

Step 2: Pose the question: If you lived under the sea, what would your castle look like?

Step 3: Using one of the building materials, let your learner build their castle. 

Step 4:  Draw a picture of the finished product.

Optional: Try adding a cardboard box or recycled plastic container to be the base of  the castle.

We taped a mermaid picture to the inside of a clear plastic box and built a castle that incorporated the box. 

Guiding questions:

Why did you pick this design?

What are your favorite parts of your castle?

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Literature Connection: The Little Mermaid. 

STEAM Connections:

Science/Technology: Look at coral reefs and other natural structures under the ocean, talk about how they look and why they think they are able to stay up underwater.

Engineering: Can you build an underwater castle in the water? What different types of building materials do you need?

Art: Draw a picture of your sand castle.

Math: Measure your castle using non-standard units (Lego or Duplo blocks work great for this.)