Trojan Horse Craft

While my youngest daughter and I made this Trojan Horse craft I decided to search Youtube to see if I could find any kid’s movies about The Trojan War. I found a cute one called Crayola Kids Adventures’ “The Trojan Horse”. Five minutes into the movie, I realized I had either forgotten much of what I learned in high school English when we studied Homer’s Odyssey and The Iliad, or else I had never read as much of it as I thought. Either way, it’s ancient history, so to speak. 😀

A quick summary of the the Trojan Horse is that during the Trojan War, the Greek army built a huge wooden horse and left it outside the gates to Troy. The Trojans thought the giant horse was a gift from the Greeks symbolizing their defeat in the battle that had lasted 10 long years. So the Trojans pulled the horse inside the city gate. But just like a plastic Easter egg, there was a surprise inside, and it wasn’t made of chocolate! Instead, there were Greek soldiers inside who leaped out and defeated the Trojans.

My oldest daughter didn’t watch the movie with us, but we talked about the story at dinner, and this led to all kinds of questions among my two girls. Did they bring food to eat with them inside the horse? What happened when they had to use the bathroom? Instead of answering, I suggested we switch our focus. So I’ll follow my own advice and turn our attention back to the craft.

Materials

2 bamboo skewers
scissors
glue
scotch tape
3 light colored sheets of cardstock
printer

Instructions

Print the following on cardstock (color versions): Template 1, Template 2 & Template 3 over at DLTK’s Crafts for Kids.

Cut out all the pieces from the templates.

Take the rectangle from template 3 and fold along the dotted black and solid black lines as shown on template. It will create a box.

Cut along the dotted lines on the two pieces labeled yoke.

Find the tabs that say “glue to yoke” on the box you just created. Glue or tape (I used a little of both) those tabs onto the 2 yoke pieces as pictured here.

Take the last piece called, the base, from template 3 and fold where indicated. (I actually messed up on this part. I never saw this piece and so my final configuration is a little different than it should be!)

Now take the base and glue or tape the flaps over the horse cart and between the horses legs.

Next, take your box piece with the 2 yokes at either end. Slide the slits of one of the yokes over the top of the horse pieces, just in front of the tail. Then slide the slits on the other yoke over the horse pieces, just behind the mane. Also pictured here.

Your horse should be stable now with only the wheels left to attach.

Use the tip of a pen to poke little holes through the center of the wheels and the dots on the bottom of the horse cart.

Finally, jab the skewers through the holes you just made on the wheels to attach them to the appropriate spots on the bottom of the cart. Trim the skewers to shorten them up and your horse is ready to roll!

So is this story of the Trojan Horse fact or fiction? Leave me a comment with your answer. In the next couple of days I’ll introduce some books on the Trojan War. Maybe some of them will help you find the answer…