This lesson has been quite rewarding for my fourth grade classes. Looking at a pictures of detailed
castles, with bricks, battlements, turrets and doors can be overwhelming, especially if you are expected to draw one.
I found the perfect solution. Borrowing a tip from my
How To Draw a Barn lesson, I cut small and
long rectangular shapes from tag board. These provide the perfect template for the center section of the castle. After tracing the center, the kids used a long templates to trace the two towers. This method is quick, accurate and eliminates the measuring and stress associated with creating the perfect lines. I demonstrated various decorative techniques varying in skill level from easy to more difficult. Many kids chose the difficult elements and felt quite proud of their accomplishments.
The first step was to pencil in all of the pencil lines, then we outlined the castle in black marker. This is the stage when I showed the kids how to add bricks. they loved how the bricks 'aged' the castle.
Finally (and this is the step that really takes the longest) is to color in the castle and background using colored pencils. If you have high quality colored pencils, the projects will turn out well. The color pencils used in this lessons were not so great, so the saturation was slightly weaker than I had hoped. Still, a wonderful project that the kids are super proud of.
To make life easier for you, I have developed a down-loadable lesson plan that features this "Castle" lesson. The PDF includes the measurements for templates and full photo tutorials. The PDF also includes two other lessons using templates as tools. Click on the "Buy Now" button below to purchase or go back
HERE to see more details.
My fourth grade students completed these fantastic castles today. I followed the instructions and template technique from my "Architecture Made Easy" PDF Lesson Plan but changed the medium. Instead of colored pencils, I suggested the students use colored markers for the small sections of the castle (windows, flags, banners, doors, etc) and liquid watercolors for the background and castle itself. 
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