How To Build a Fort in Your Room

Ingredients

• Parental permission
• 2 to 4 blankets or sheets
• 3 couch cushions or pillows
• Some heavy objects
• Imagination
• Boxes or squares of cardboard (optional)
• Playmates (optional)
• Decorations (optional)
• Extra pillows (optional)
• Snacks (optional)
• Flashlight (optional)
• Games (optional)

Steps

1. Pick your spot - Choose an area on the floor between two pieces of furniture (like your bed and dresser, or desk and chair), clear the space, and put down a blanket for the floor. (37 sec. )
2. Construct the walls - Use your furniture to prop up the couch cushions in a way that forms three walls. Use large boxes or squares of cardboard to add extra rooms. (45 sec. )
3. Try not to block the doorway. (54 sec. )
4. Make the roof - Drape a blanket or sheet over the fort’s walls. You also can tie the corners of sheets to pieces of furniture. (57 sec. )
5. Strengthen your structure - Use some heavy objects—like hardcover books—to pin down each corner of the blanket. If your fort is big enough, put some pillows inside to make it comfy. (68 sec. )
6. Enter your fort - Grab a playmate, snacks, flashlight, games, or whatever else you’d like, and prepare to defend your fort! (77 sec. )
7. Don’t put the heavy objects too close to the inside of the fort—you don’t want them to fall in on you when you enter! (86 sec. )
8. Ask for permission - Get the okay from your mom or dad to use couch cushions, blankets, and pillows to build a fort in your room. (93 sec. )
9. Francis Scott Key was inspired to write “The Star-Spangled Banner” after witnessing the attack on Baltimore’s Fort McHenry. (101 sec. )