Catapults–Castle Defense

The children have been defending the castle by hand to hand combat with swords and shields, arrows and axes.  Last week I set materials and a few pictures of catapults on the art table to inspire them to think of a new way.
      
        The families were busy everyday creating new designs.
 

Here are a few samples of what they created.
  
Wood block, tongue depressor on a clothespin.
  
Tube, sponge, tongue depressor and egg cup.
 
Tube, elastics and plasticspoon.
 
Straws, tape, spoon and elastics.
 
Tissue box, chop sticks, elastics and milk jug lid.
 
I’m not sure what they used to build this catapult but it was amazing.

 
We used the shelf beside the art table as the shooting area. 
          Pom poms were used for the ammunition.
  

Although many were tried right at the table to see if they functioned.
 
It was very exciting to watch the failures and successes.
  

The children carried the idea of catapults over to this week at one
                             of our play trays.
              
             I set up a tray with a scale and little dinosaurs.
             
Each child that played with it placed a dinosaur on one side and hit the other side.  Not what I intended but was thrilled to see the follow thru of what we learned the previous week.