This post includes sponsored links from Entropy, check the end of this post for a great giveaway.
The Castle Story
By Noah – aged 4.
Once upon a time there was a castle.
In front of the castle there was a big forest, at the edge of the forest there was a river, and after that was The Land of Giant Mushrooms.
Lots of people lived in the castle, including fairies, knights, a prince, a princess, and a wizard.
The castled was defended by some brave knights, a boy with an eagle, and a friendly dragon. They needed to be very brave, because some baddies lived in the The Land of Giant Mushrooms and they were really really bad, and mean.
The boss of the baddies was the evil fairy queen. There was also a bad knight and all kinds of scary baddies.
One day the evil queen made her baddies attack the castle!
There was a big fight, and lots of shouting, and some blood, and the wizard did a spell, and one of the knights died. Then the other knight shouted “Send out the dragon!”
The big friendly dragon swooped down and caught the queen and put her in the dungeon.
Then they put up the draw bridge and the people in the castle could all go to sleep and be safe.
The end.
It may look like just a bit of playful fun and it is… but while my four year old sets up the castle scene and then acts out his story with the figurines, he is also totally immersed in holistic learning. He is using skills from every developmental area as he imagines the scene and creates the story.
He is using his motor skills and co-ordination to build the scene and balance the figurines on the turrets. He is practicing pre-reading skills by making up his own story with characters, a beginning, a middle and an end. He is figuring out social issues like what makes a character a goodie and what makes them a baddie and what happens when they die?
I could go on listing skills that Noah is using and developing as he plays with the castle, but you get the idea, this may just be a bit of imaginative play but it is also a whole lot of learning.
This is why I love imaginative play, because it combines multiple skills and you can just about see the learning and growing happening right before your eyes!
Win Your Own Castle and Figurines from Entropy.
This competition is now closed.
Congratulations to ‘A.S’ who’s clever story including the word ‘entropy’ won them this fab prize!
Over the years we have collected lots of great figurines for imaginative play and we added the great castle one Christmas. People often ask me where we got the Schleich and Papo figures from and where the great castle came from and I’m always happy to recommend a great Australian toy shop – Entropy.
I shop online with Entropy every Christmas and have always been impressed with their range and service, so when they contacted me asking if I would like to work with them I was super excited! And I’m even more excited to give away a fabulous Papo castle play set from Entropy!
One lucky reader will win this amazing Papo Weaponmaster Castle (RRP $169), a Papo Castle Baseboard (RRP $19.95) and $50 worth of Papo figurines!
To enter pop over to the entropy site and check out the Papo figurines, then leave a comment on this post telling me which figurines would live in your castle and why. The most interesting, or funny comment will win.
Which Papo figurines would live in your castle and why?
Terms and Conditions.
You must be an Australian resident with an Australian post address to enter.
You must provide a valid email address and entries are limited to one per household.
Entries close Wednesday September 3rd 2014 at midday EST.
One winner will be contacted by email and announced on this post before September 30th 2014.
Entries will be judged on merit and creativity.
Prizes include a Papo Weaponmaster Castle (RRP $169), a Papo Castle Baseboard (RRP $19.95) and $50 worth of Papo figurines and postage within Australia.
Prizes may differ to those shown here and the figurines component of the prize are not necessarily those shown in the image and will be selected by Entropy staff to the nearest monetary value of $50.
The winner must contact me within 5 days or the prize will be re-drawn.
The winner agrees to have their contact details passed on to the appropriate PR company or brand representative who will send out/organise the prizes directly.
{disclosure: This is a feature post – find more information about feature posts here. The castle and figurines featured in this post belong to my children and were bought from Entropy and other stores, over many years, prior to this arrangement. The opinions shared in this post are my own. }
My two and I are agreed. We would all be the two-headed golden dragon dude. That’s six heads. It would be a fierce, fun and swift battle. xx
Any one of my Kindergarten children will tell you. “Ooooooh! Miss Sue LOVES dragons!” We would HAVE to have at least one dragon in our castle if we won! Maybe even a whole family of dragons living in the castle….
Oh wow…. what a lovely range of figurines. I’m utterly engrossed with game of thrones at the moment. Although my kids have no idea about the show, they would enjoy playing with any of these figurines. While the elf child is gorgeous, I think the Chimera would be the star of quite a few play sessions.
Oh the dragon! My son is dragon mad. He’d think this was awesome!
Omg! We would have to have the Rhino Man and Merlin along any Two of the princesses!
When my husband and I were younger (pre-kids) we went on the trip of a life time to the UK. There we met a wonderful couple whom we quickly became friends with. It turned out we shared a secret nerdy bond in that we loved playing Hero Quest – a board game. As we travelled around Ireland, we each took on a characters demeanor posing for photos everywhere in character. I laugh when I look at these photos now – so funny! Anyway, I was a dwarf but I had an axe and looked exactly like Rhino Man and my husband was a Wizard so like the Merlin figurine. With a couple of princesses we could complete our family with our two little girls. They often ask me what we were doing dressed up in those photos, id love to make them part of the story -chapter 2!
My five year old son came over to see what I was reading. I told him it was a competition and you could win the castle. His eyes filled with wonder and I asked if he would like to pick what figurines he would choose to play with, if he had such a castle. He said:
“A castle must have a dragon, the two headed gold dragon will definitely do! And living in my castle are…PIRATES. The shark mutant pirate is the leader and he leads the zombie pirates. And their pet is the t-rex.”
Oh my goodness what a marvellous story and love that imagination! My favourite Papo figurines would have to be the child elves and pony. My daughter is crazy about castles, fairies and mythical creatures at the moment and these would fit perfectly in with her interest.
Noah looks like he is having so much fun. Isn’t imaginative play the best!!!
There are so many awesome Papo figurines to choose from, but I think I would choose a king, a knight and a dragon, just so I could weave these awesome jokes into our imaginative play.
Q: Why did the king go to the dentist?
A: To get his teeth crowned.
Q: When a knight in armour died in battle, what did they put on his grave?
A: Rust in peace
Q: Why do dragons sleep during the day?
A: So they can fight knights.
The old favorite, John Wayne Figurine and other cowboy figures that defended the Alamo, my son has a huge collection of these cowboys and Indians and plays castles and forts all of the time
My son (6) said the castle needs the Imp, Gorilla Mutant, Tiger Man and Cerberus of Darkness because they are cool. And they would do ‘whatever I think they should do’
HUGE fan of the Papo figures here. It would be the green dragon and the red dragon that would be the big feature in our castle, because such things are possible in a Entropy world. Green dragon is will be called Mopo, and Red Dragon would be Zupzie. They are enemies who become friends as they learn to stand together to fight the evils of Lord Bothermere.
My kids castle would only be full of dragons and unicorns! That way they could each have their favourites, living together – hopefully without the dragons eating the unicorns. Maybe I’d need some fairies to help guard the unicorns from the dragons!!
We would have one that represents us all (regardless what game the kids are playing there is always a family).
Gorilla Mutant because dad is hairy is protective.
Woman warrior because mum isn’t the delicate type, she stands up for those who can’t.
Croc man because Mr 7 is reptile mad, they have heaps of teeth and are powerful.
Skeleton because Mr 5 thinks skeletons are scary all year round and lastly the Elf Ballerina and her unicorn because Miss 1 is dainty but mysterious.
My two girls have the most amazing adventures with very ordinary objects I would love to see what they did with these amazing toys , the unicorns , fairies and elves would be a starting point , what a great range