Building the Raytheon Castle

I am a fortunate beneficiary of a corporate recycling initiative. Raytheon has organized giveaways of recycled materials for art teachers and other educators. The events are held in a Texas Instruments parking lot, and art teachers go wild scooping up boxes, tubes, packing materials, lids, and other goodies that aren't easy to describe. These events promote art teacher brainstorms, encourage employees to participate in the company recycling effort, and cut costs for art class materials. The quantities of materials are sometimes tricky to control. I will cart a Buick full of boxes back to my classroom, then spend weeks figuring out strange ways to use all the materials.And so, my preschoolers are building Raytheon castles. We are gluing together boxes for throne rooms, thrones, and windows, with dimpled sponge packing foam pieces for the "stone" walls. The kids are especially excited about the gray sponge foam block we are using for a stone. Not just any stone, but the stone for the popsicle stick sword. Whosoever pulleth forth this sword from the stone in crowned rightful King of England!Today we played Pass the Paint while we painted the castles. Tomorrow we will make clothespin people for the castle. Thursday we will add a magical dragon to the castle. The clay dragons have been fired, and are ready for painting!