This activity was such a fun addition to our China week that I think we’re going to use it for part of our Geography Fair display! We decided to use FloraCraft Styrofoam Bricks and they worked so well, I think we’ll use them again just for fun! Are you tempted? Want to make one? Here’s how:
Supplies:
- FloraCraft Styrofoam Bricks (I used 1 ENTIRE bag for this wall)
- White Craft Glue
- Foam Poster Board
- Fake greenery
- Cardboard (for the floor of the wall)
- Toothpicks (to secure stairs on ends of Wall)
Directions:
STEP 1: Draw 2 parallel curved lines across your poster board and then trace over that with a strip of glue. Place blocks along curve.
STEP 2: Put another bead of glue on top of bottom layer of bricks and stagger so bricks aren’t right on top of each other. Repeat until wall is to desired height.
STEP 3: Cut cardboard to fit curves of wall and glue on top of the brick layer.
STEP 4: Put another layer of bricks on top of the floor (cardboard) layer. And build up castle on both ends of wall.
Since the bricks are foam, you can cut them in half to put the smaller castle tops on each end.
STEP 5: Let bricks dry then cut doorways in foam castles. Use toothpicks to secure bricks inside the natural stair form created from staggering each layer of bricks when making the wall.
STEP 6: Glue fake greenery to edges of wall for decoration.
STEP 7: Test out your wall with various figurines, then take it to your Geography Fair for display!
Click here to see the rest of our China Activities!
Click here to learn more about the Expedition Earth Geography curriculum!
Erica,
I cannot thank you enough for all of the hard work you’ve put into the Expedition Earth curriculum. It’s fantastic! I’ve been so giddy about starting it (in just a couple of weeks actually). Thank you using your gifts and talents from the Lord to bless others and honor Him.
Now I just need to get my supplies together: bricks for our Great Wall of China, boxes for our Brazilian rain forest….ahhhhhh….I’m sooooooooo excited!!!!!
I love this project! How long did it take for you to put it together? I am planning this for a co-op class project with 12 kids and I’m trying gauge resources. thank you for your help!
I would allow at least two separate sessions to work on it. Mainly because the glue takes a bit to dry and so we kind of build it in two halves. The bottom half, then the top towers, steps, and greenery.
We just finished our great wall. Thanks for your idea and clear specifications! We loved this activity, although my son, who got a snake for Christmas, immediately changed its name to The Great Wall of Snaketopia and made it a playland for his pet! I told him he was completely allowed to do that, as long as he understands what the actual Great Wall of China is.
Awesome!! would of built it definitely, but nowhere near me sells styrofoam bricks.
You can order them online 🙂 There is a link in the post.
thanks a lot this really helped my sons homework
Hi.
We are going to be working on the Wall of China soon. I bought the box of blocks from the amazon link you provided. Is that box enough…you mentioned that you used the whole bag? I just want to make sure we have enough before we get started.
Thanks so much for all of your work on this…
Heidi
We used an entire box for our Great Wall of China. It just depends on how large you make it 🙂 We just went with what we had.
wow! im trying this today with my mom and its a social studies project thanks for the steps your very fun and nice !
It was wondering what age group is this for.
I usually recommend Expedition Earth for elementary students K-6
It looks so cute! I love it but what size poster board did you use for this project?
You can make it any size you like. We just got a board from a local store. It was about 2′ x 3′ if I recall, but you can do a smaller one 🙂
We just finished our study of China and we followed your instructions to make the Great Wall. Ours don’t like as neat and tidy as yours but the kids had fun making it. We laugh and say that ours looks like how The Great Wall looks now 🙂 I’ve linked your post on our China Study post. http://growingcuriousminds.com/china-unit-study/