GINA B. GOOD / PVT Girls just want to have fun as they surround and inspect River Stone Castle, created by Sabrina Maughan, seated. GINA B. GOOD / PVT Four kittens guard the entrance of The Kitten Castle, designed by Courtney Rohleder, left. They were on the lookout because the white traditional style Castle Dog, built by Allista Ward was right next door. Advertisement

It was Castlemania at J.G. Johnson Elementary School Wednesday, as Ruby Cooper's fifth-grade students displayed their inventive homemade castles for the rest of the student body.

Cooper's class is reading "The Castle in the Attic," written by Elizabeth Winthrop, a book about the adventures of a boy who is given a detailed miniature castle. As they read the whimsical story, students learn the meaning of new words, such as tapestry, troubadour, portcullis and minstrel.

"The kids had three weeks to create a castle, name it and make a flag," said Cooper, who has given her students this assignment for the past eight years.

The castles were displayed on tables in the gym and their designers answered questions. One distinctive castle even had its own story.

The young designer had a game in mind when he created Castle Minion, which was a home for mythical creatures. While the castle had once been a beautiful place, the winged dragons that were still standing with their wings spread on top of the tower had fought a terrible war that destroyed most of the structure.

A decade after the war, what was left of Castle Minion was a round, simulated stone structure made of Styrofoam and wire with wooden stakes stuck at odd angles. It was painted in grays, greens and black to look like mold growing on the building. The moat, once filled with blue water, was now dry. Castle Minion started many conversations among interested students.

Many of the castles used family names; like Ft. Murf by Daniel Murfhy and St. Thomas Castle by Thomas Jepson, who took three days to construct it. St. Thomas was made from plywood and sprayed with texturizing paint to look like stone.

Brooke Witten made the large Wittenberg Castle. Maile Anderson's Neuschuanstein Castle was also a traditional design, using colored fish tank rocks for a touch of color. Ethan White's Woodshire Castle was made with flat sticks and topped with sugar cubes.

Leann Soriano spent a whole day constructing her Mirror Castle. She spray painted her castle gray, then added speckled, rocky spray paint to give the facade a rock-like look. The small mirrors on the outside made the castle look like it had many windows.

Theodore "T.J." Milk, from Cleveland, was wearing a Buckeye T-shirt. He built OSU Castle because the Ohio State University Buckeyes is his favorite football team.

There was also the Unique Magic Barn Castle by Edson Roman that was constructed using about 500 sticks and took a week to build.

River Stone Castle had twin towers in front covered with polished rocks. Artificial ivy was growing up the tower between the rocks. Sabrina Maughan added printed rock paper on the sides of River Stone Castle and a background mural of trees completed the look of a real castle.

Stephanie Lopez made her large Caesar's Castle from painted corrugated cardboard. Medd Davila used play dough on her small and colorful design called Bravo Force Castle.

Other designers included Ubaldo Alvarado who constructed La Medieval Era Castle and Kyrnan Differ whose Lego Castle had a knotted climbing robe thrown over the side to enter.

The Old Castle by Kylie Small was another large structure. Kylie said she procrastinated and made the whole wooden structure the day before. Her dad helped her and showed her how to use the electric saw to cut out the windows.

Larry Pearson added a pirate flag to his Tri Force Castle that took him three days to construct. He said he's going to make a video using the castle and post it on YouTube.

Knights Refuge was designed by Chelsey Goodnature and Castlevania was made by Brandin Derr.

The project was definitely appreciated by students in other classes as they interacted with the builders and selected favorites among the diverse designs.