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    Home » Theme Based Learning Activities

    Published: Jun 12, 2018 · Modified: Dec 16, 2019 by Fynn · All activities should be supervised by an adult. This post may contain affiliate links.

    Castle and Dragons Theme Learning Activities and Learning Shelf

    Castle & Dragon Learning Shelf

    This theme is chosen by my son who is obsessed with all things dragons now. Do you have a little dragon lover at home too? He/she is going to love this shelf! Here's a summary post of all the Castle and Dragons theme learning activities we did for this month. To read more about how we do learning at home with our learning shelf, I encourage you to read our How HTS Works page first. To know why we love theme based learning, check out this page.

    Castle and Dragons Theme Learning Shelf

    Castle theme learning activities

    • Pinterest Idea Board: [theme] CASTLE & DRAGONS
    • Unique Hashtag on Instagram: #castledragonshts
    • Focus Book: The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola, How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head by Bill Peet and The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp

    Siblings learning together

    This learning shelf and the activities are created for both toddlers (1.5yo to 3yo) and preschoolers (3 to 6 years old). When I made this learning shelf, my daughter was 2 years 10 month old and my son was 5 years 2 months old. All the activities have been categorized into the six main learning areas (language, numeracy, motor skills, discovery of the world, arts & creative expression, social & emotional development) that I am focusing on for my children.

     

    CASTLE AND DRAGONS THEME LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR TODDLERS (1.5 TO 3 YEARS OLD)

    • Play this simple castle theme graphing game. Go to this post to read more about this activity and grab the free printable. (numeracy, language)

    Castle theme graphing game

    • Count the flags and put in the corresponding number of flags in the TP roll castles. (numeracy)

    • Play this fun Dragon Feeding and Color Sorting Game. Throw the dragon die and feed the dragon a pom pom that shows up on the die. (numeracy)

    Dragon theme activity for toddlers

    *This printable and instructions are exclusively for my newsletter subscribers only. Subscribe to my newsletter and receive the password to access the HTS Printable page as a welcome gift!

    • Match fairy tale characters puzzle pieces to the outlines. These beautiful wooden puzzles are from The Freckled Frog. (motor skills)

    Fairytale characters puzzle matching

    • Sort felt cut outs according to their shapes on the felt board shield. (numeracy)

    Castle theme shape sorting learning activity

    • Write some letter Ds and other letters with dry erase marker on the laminated dragon footprints printable. Invite your child to find all the D and erase them. (language, motor skills)

    D is for Dragon letter search activitiy

    *This printable and instructions are exclusively for my newsletter subscribers only. Subscribe to my newsletter and receive the password to access the HTS Printable page as a welcome gift.

    • Color matching dot to dot activity with a dragon theme twist. I told my 2yo that she's connecting the different colored fireballs of the dragons to their target boards. I attached the activity sheet on a wardrobe door so that my girl will work on vertical surface in this activity. There are many developmental benefits for kids when they work on a vertical surface. This is a good post by The Inspired TreeHouse about the benefits.  (motor skill, numeracy)

    Dragon theme color activity for toddlers

    Dragon theme color activity for toddlers

    CASTLE AND DRAGONS THEME LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOLERS (3 TO 6 YEARS OLD)

    • Symmetry shield. Put felt shapes on one side of the shield and invite your child to complete the other side by making the design symmetrical. (numeracy)

    Symmetry shield

    Castle theme symmetry learning activity

    • Make some swords using cardboard. Invite your child to make guesses about the length of each sword and then use a ruler to measure actual length. (numeracy)

    Measuring swords castle theme activities for kids

    • Play this fun Dragon Feeding and Color Sorting Game. Throw the dragon die and feed the dragon a pom pom that shows up on the die. For preschoolers, increase the challenge by 1) including a second number die. They will feed the dragon the number of pompoms that show up on the number die and 2) using chopsticks or tweezers to pick up the pompoms. (numeracy, motor skills)

    Dragon theme game for kids

    Bonus: This printable can be found on my subscriber-only Printable page. As a bonus for joining my mailing list, you get access to ALL my printables. Get them here>>

    • Chinese sight words matching dot to dot activity with a dragon theme twist. My son is learning the Chinese names of six colors (红,蓝,黄,紫,橙,绿) here. His task is to find and dot the Chinese names of each color with the correct dot paint color. Where's the dragon twist? I told my son that different color dragons breath out different color fireballs and his task is to locate the target board for each dragon. Again, I have this activity pasted on my wardrobe door so that my son gets to work on a vertical surface. (language, motor skills)

    Dragon theme Chinese words matching game

    Dragon theme Chinese words matching game

    • Learn and play with our Castle Theme Chinese Learning Pack Printable. Go to this post to read more about this activity and grab this free printable. (language)

    Castle Theme Chinese Learning Printable

    • Count the pompom fireballs for each dragon based on the number on the token picked. Then compare which dragon has more 'fireballs' and use the 'greater than/less than' symbol to represent the relationship. (numeracy)

    Dragon fireball pom pom counting activity

    Dragon fireball pom pom counting activity

    • Arrange the castles from the oldest to the newest according to the years that they are built. (numeracy, discovery of the world)

    Learning years with kids

    CRAFT PROJECTS, EXPERIMENTS & SENSORY PLAY

    • Paint your sword invitation

    Paint your sword invitation to create

    • Build catapults with chopsticks/popsicle sticks and rubber bands. Check out Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls, they have tutorials to make so many different types of catapults. We made the chopsticks one with this tutorial and the popsicle sticks one with this tutorial.

    Making catapult with chopsticks

    Build a catapult with chopsticks

    • Build a castle in the cloud with ice-cream cones and shaving cream. We had some expired ice cream cones at home, alternatively you can use TP rolls too.

    Castle theme sensory play

    Castle theme sensory play

    Make a paper plate dragon twirler. Dragon printable and tutorial at Red Ted Art blog.

    Paper plate dragon

    Love this theme learning shelf? Be sure to check out the rest of our theme learning shelves too!

    Castle and Dragon Learning Activities

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    About Fynn

    Fynn is a Math and Science teacher from Singapore, author of The Happy Learning Book for Siblings and founder of Happy Tot Shelf. She helps parents enjoy home learning with their children through her highly popular kids' activity membership, The Happy Learners' Club. Fynn has been featured in various newspapers, websites and on radio shows as an expert in early childhood learning and creative hands-on learning ideas.

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    Hi there, I'm Fynn, an educator, author and mom of 3. I believe nurturing a love of learning begins at home. I'm here to help parents nurture a love of learning and build a strong bond with their children through fun learning together.

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