Okay, so I went with the candy castle.
It’s not quite as majestic or even delicious-looking as I was hoping, but it will work.
This is simple enough that detailed instructions, measurements are not needed for most of it. The pictures show almost everything.
Waffle Cone Pattern
To achieve the ice cream cone look, I used brown paper and drew the lines with a brown crayon. I used a large ruler to make the first two lines in a wide X shape. No measuring was needed as I just used the previously drawn lines as a guide to make the new.
Wafer Doors
It might have been a better idea to do pink wafers instead of orange, but orange works. For a more realistic wafer look (and a more time-consuming project), the squares should really be smaller than the ones I made.
To make this, I cut out about a “4 cardboard square and traced around it onto the door with about ½ inch or less in between. I didn’t measure it out, so some of it is a bit crooked.
After all of the squares were drawn on, I shaded the squares, which is easier than it sounds. I just used a gray crayon to color along the inside lines of the top and right side of the square.
Ice Cream
To make the ice cream tower tops, I just used a roll of paper and cut out the shape of a very large scoop of ice cream. Once stapled to the wall and stuffed with fiberfill/ stuffing, my co-teacher dotted the whole thing with a bit of puff paint for the sprinkles.
Candy Striped Wall
This was fun and really simple. This is a simple background of blue paper, with stripes of yellow crepe paper.
Kids and Decorating
I think it will need some more embellishments later, but my students (Grades 1-2) will probably take care of this throughout the quarter. Since most of my students love coloring, every quarter they get to color little items that match the décor and they tape it to the wall. We give them each one item to color per week and when they color it and put their name on it, they hang it wherever they want (usually within a designated wall). This quarter they will be coloring sweet-themed items like lollipops, ice cream, cake, et cetera. Before this quarter is up, my Sunday school room will be plastered with a colorful hodgepodge of student-colored sweets!
Sweets Coloring Items – Free Download
Although the kids have a lot of fun with this, I think that there is a greater benefit than just student enjoyment: Their coloring is contributing to the décor, which makes them feel more a part of the class. In general children usually color for others, not for themselves. While a lot of completed coloring pages and drawings are presented to their parents, most students are more than willing to contribute their work to their Sunday school class if asked to. Several of my students take it seriously and spend a lot of time carefully coloring in the lines or creating elaborate designs within their items. Last quarter we had an owl theme and we gave the students owls to color every week. One student meticulously turned all of his owls into recognizable superheroes. Among those I remember, he made a Superman owl, a Batman owl, The Flash owl and The Green Lantern owl. A few of my students don’t care about coloring, but they still show the same level as the others of determination to participate. These students unwaveringly claim their items, write their names on them, and without coloring them further, select a special spot to hang them.
Although this coloring exercise has nothing to do with what we are trying to teach our students on a weekly basis, I think it is worthwhile to do as it not only gives the children ownership of their own Sunday school class, it also relaxes them and lets them be themselves before every lesson. In many cases, children aren’t allowed to interact with the decorations in their Sunday school room with the exceptions of the basics such as attendance charts and/or some sort of chart or page to track Bible verse quotations. Although I use both of these, I have found it to be very beneficial to allow my students to interact with a larger part of the classroom. Just to be clear, they do not have the run of the classroom and they are not allowed to pull decorations off the wall that my co-teacher and I worked hard to put up. We teach them to have respect in the classroom, but we also teach them that their contributions are valued. A student that feels valued by a teacher will be in a better position to be taught that they are valued by their creator.