Cardboard Project: A Knight's Shield

Santino has a foam sword and a rocking horse, that he likes to sit on, waving the above-mentioned sword. I've been thinking about making a shield for him, especially after we've read "Franklin is Messy" book a hundred times in the past week. In this book Franklin makes his own sword and his own shield. Santino just can't get enough of this story. Today we finally did! We made a shield for Santino.

I cut out a shield of a cardboard box. I also cut out the same shape out of a white poster-size construction paper, just about an inch smaller on all sides. Then I told Santino, that we will glue the white paper on the shield and he will decorate it however he likes.

Later I glued a cardboard handle to the back of the shield, which I cut from the same box. 

Before attempting this little craft, I did a little bit of reading on what elements shields could have, but in the end I decided to make it easy. Santino decided what would go on the shield and where.

He glued some shapes and popsicle sticks and painted something with watercolors. Then we wrote "Sir Santino" with a marker. We actually had a little argument about where the words need to go. I insisted on keeping them together, while Santino wanted to scatter them everywhere. I won this one, and Santino got upset, even put his shield in the closet, refusing to play with it.

Later he warmed up to it again and we enjoyed a fun dragon-fighting game. Santino was a knight, and I was a two-headed or sometimes a three-headed dragon. Soooo much fun!