Build Sandpaper Castles with Preschoolers

Build Sandpaper Sand Castles with preschoolers

Building castles out of sandpaper is an excellent activity for shape recognition, learning shape attributes and getting a little creative! It's also a new tactile experience for many preschoolers! This is a fun, and clean, way to bring the beach indoors. Follow along with this tutorial to guide you in setting up this invitation with teaching tips along the way. Then pop over to our Free Fun in the Summer Sun Theme Planning Page for even more learning activities for this theme. 

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Supplies:

​This fun activity is one of 200 hands on preschool activities featured in our Pre-K Play Ideas eBook! Purchase our eBook to have all of these activity pages at your fingertips.

• Sandpaper sheets (try grabbing some in different grit ratings for variety)
• Various household items shaped as circle, rectangle, square 
• Scissors
• Marker

Teacher tip: Invite preschoolers to first feel the sandpaper, ask them what it feels like? What type of texture is it? Do they think it will be easy or hard to cut? Do they notice the difference in each grit type?

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Create the Sandcastle Pieces

Start by gathering household items to trace circles, rectangles, and squares on the backside of the sandpaper sheets. Have your preschooler assist you with the items to search for, talk about what shapes they would like to use.
. Both cups and wooden blocks work great. Then you will want to use your marker to trace about 8-10 of each shape. Preschoolers will enjoy helping with this step too!

Once you have traced all the shapes then cut out all the shapes - cut a couple of the squares in half from corner to corner to from triangles and a couple of the circles in half as well. 

Teacher tip: We recommend tracing a few shapes on regular paper for preschoolers to cut out because they will want to help cut out the sandpaper shapes but this step requires more heavy duty scissors. ​

As you cut out the shapes, ask your preschoolers to name each shape!
In addition to learning to identify shapes, learning shape attributes is a learning goal for kindergarten. Once your preschooler masters identifying basic shapes, challenge them to create new shapes by combining the shapes ("What shape can you make out of two triangles?") and ask them to describe how they know it is a triangle. Having some Shape Posters available can be helpful for preschoolers to reference and extend learning. 

Once the shapes are cut out, begin building your castles by arranging the sandpaper. Let your preschoolers be creative and fun, take pictures of their creations to display and add to their portfolios. 

You can also glue the sandpaper onto big pieces of construction paper because preschoolers might want to keep theirs in one piece. 

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​Buy the eBook!

Save time planning your hands on preschool activities! Find detailed directions for this activity + 199 more in our Pre-K Play Ideas eBook! Print each activity page, or access them digitally!

You May Also Like:

Beach Inspired Sand Tray
Summer Preschool Activities
Free Fun in the Summer Sun Theme Planning Page
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