Easy Folded Paper Houses

The Tipp City Area Arts Council sponsored Children's Art Adventures the first Saturday morning in August.  The site was adjacent to the Saturday Morning Farmers' Market.  Early in the morning the rain poured down but by the time people began setting up the day was clearing.  There were about twenty different booths where children  could make art projects. The activities were planned for ages three to thirteen  Tote bags were provided for them to carry their finished projects.  The cost was five dollars to help defray the cost of the supplies.

Most of the booths were on the lawn of the Crossroads Community Church.  Four booths, including mine, were in the all purpose room.  Four helpers and I helped  the children make Folded Paper Houses.

I have no idea where my son and I found this project forty-five years ago.  He had a lot of fun making these little houses.  When I taught first grade, we made them as a class.

The houses are a good project for a wide range of age groups. The basic house can be folded by six year old children but the refinements are endless.  One of my helpers was in junior high and another one was going into high school.  They came up with a variety of ideas as they worked with the young children.

The third helper was a middle-aged man.  He contributed the flower shop as well as the beginnings of a strip mall.   I made Tom's Auto Repair which is a variation of the house.

Helper number four was a grandmother, like me, and helped the very young artists find the roof so they could color it.  Once the preschooler had colored the roof and added doors and windows, she put the houses together for him or her.

Here is the sample house that I taped to the How to Make It poster.  In the background behind the orange truck is another variation of the house.  It is a box store which is a  common type of store today.

This is the How to Make It Poster.

The sample house is in the bottom row, the last sample with a rolled piece of tape and a sample chimney beyond it.

Here is a copy of the directions page  I sent home with the children so they could make more houses at home.  If you click on the picture, it will enlarge enough so you can read the directions.

These little houses are substantial enough for even young children to play with for a day or two if the ends are stapled together.  Taping does not make as sturdy a house. Older children can keep and play with their buildings much longer.  Many of them figured out ways to make 3-D chimneys for their houses.  One taped his house to another square of paper and added a garage and driveway beside his house.  

To make the box store, follow the directions until you get to number nine.  The box store requires only four cuts, the upper cut and the lower cut on each side.

A few houses and little vehicles are shown in the village below.  I made the village streets by attaching black duct tape to a round fabric-backed vinyl  tablecloth.  This makes an almost indestructible  road grid that can be folded and packed away between uses.  This village turned out to be useful . The two year old children played with the cars on the roads while the parents helped the children who were a bit older to complete their houses.