How to Make an Easy Roman Helmet & Shield and A Set of Printable Wings was easy to make. Also, look at my Ancient Rome Lapbook for Kids and Fun Hands-on Ideas for more fun.
It has never been a secret that I don’t sew and barely craft.
So when it came time to get Tiny ready for our year end co-op when studying Ancient Civilizations, I turned to cardboard and duct tape.
Ancient Rome was a powerful civilization, and it influenced many things in our modern world.
And you’ll love how to make an easy Roman helmet doesn’t really take so long.
HOW TO MAKE AN EASY ROMAN HELMET
Supplies List
- 2 Large pieces of cardboard. I got mine from Target when they were throwing the boxes away. I knew I wanted one piece tall enough to be a shield for Tiny.
- Gold and red duct tape or your choice of colors.
- Silver Sharpie
- 1 piece of red cardstock
- About 3 pieces of poster board. We chose red color.
- 1 men’s extra large red t-shirt
- Scissors, a hot glue gun and a sharp craft knife like x-acto
- We already had brown summer sandals for footwear.
- Of course, no kid this age will go without anything under the shirt, tee hee hee and they shouldn’t so a shorter pairs of shorts works.
Just in case all of this gets gibberish sounding and because you know I love a good old picture anytime to explain anything, I put one here for you.
It was all easy to make but like anything it takes a bit of time to put it together.
HOW TO MAKE AN EASY ROMAN HELMET
This took me part of 2 days or one weekend to put this together along with some help from hubby.
Helmet. The helmet was 3 pieces of cardboard, some duct tape, and red cardstock.
One piece of cardstock I measured to go around the head or as a headband.
One to go over the top so the “feathers” can adhere to it and then the front part that was free drawn by hand and then colored with a silver sharpie.
It was glued on the headband.
Then I took the red cardstock and made a crease in the center and then cut it into strips but not cut all the way through.
Then glued it on the top of the cardboard piece of the helmet.
Here is a side angle of it.
After you glue it on the top strip coming over the helmet, just work with the cut strips until you get them to stick up how you like.
KIDS ANCIENT ROME COSTUME WITH CARDBOARD
I cut some up thicker and others thinner to make it more rustic and real looking.
Tiny was pleased with it and we worked next on some “armor” for the shoulders and chest.
Shoulder & Chest Armor. This was quiet a bit easier. I just used soft poster board, duct tape and leather shoe strings. I laid the soft poster board across his shoulders, did an eyeball measure and taped it with duct tape.
It is two pieces after I cut a circle for his head and I taped the back side. I left the front open so he could slip it on.
One view is of the top in the picture above and if you turn it over it didn’t look so hot on the underneath, but hey nobody sees that anyway. I just used more tape to hold it.
This was the very last piece put on so that I could put duct tape around the neck or the other side of the circle.
I used leather shoe strings around a piece of gold poster for his chest armor.
Shield. This didn’t take long either. The hardest part was cutting it. I thought about painting it but didn’t really want to mess with waiting for it to dry.
That was one option though. Instead we just covered it with red poster board and used duct tape to cover the edges.
I think I change my mind but maybe the hardest part was finding a good set of “wings” that were approved by Tiny.
MORE ANCIENT ROME HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES
- Ancient Rome 15 step-by-step projects
- How to Make a Roman Costume With Kids
- Create a Roman Solider Mosaic
- Paint a Roman Jester
- Make a paper Colosseum
He spent almost an hour on the internet looking for some. In the end I couldn’t find any that were free on line so I made some from our clipart.
You never know when you might need one set of wings, so download here printable wings.
Add a foil covered bowl to the center and we were done.
It was the back that took just a little longer because I made some cardboard holders for him to put his arm through and one for him to hold.
So in all the back had 2 holders to keep up his shield.
Again I lifted the shield and measured about where he would hold it and made some cardboard “holders” and used duct tape to keep them in place.
After that hubby helped to make a sword “holder” out of a left over piece of cardboard and a bracelet or two and we were done.
Helmet, shield, chest armor, shoulder armor and a sword holder. What more could a kid want for his Roman soldier costume? Try one!
