Dog House from a recycled box

This 'Dog House' is another project for the craft day in my daughter's school. First one I already shared with you 'Making Dogie with Simple Shapes'. But that one is for classes with younger kids. For pre-K and Kindergarten children I want to do something that will be fun and will encourage teamwork. Theme as I said earlier is dog mascots.

So the idea is to encourage kids to first think what all would a dog needs in his/her house, then work as a team to create a dog house meeting those requirements. I also want kids to see how a used cardboard box can be transformed into something functional and fun.

Saanvi enjoying making a dog house

Materials needed:

• Empty cardboard box
• Foam Sheets (my absolute fav. product, its so colorful and easy to use)
• Tacky glue
• Scissors
• White Acrylic paint
• Flower punch

Process is quite simple. Cutting foam sheets for making tiles was the only thing that took most amount of time.

1. Take a used cardboard box.
2. Cut out doors and windows as desired.
3. Take a piece of another cardboard box to make the roof.
4. Cut out to folded sides of the box into triangular gables matching the roof using masking tape.
5. Paint the box white (or any other color as desired).
6. Decorate the dog house yourself or with your kid.

I asked Saanvi how she wanted to decorate the house and she wanted bushes and flowers on the dog house. You can use punches to cut out flowers and whatever else you want to add on the dog house. You can use Popsicle sticks to make fence around the house or anything else you child can imagine.

I can guarantee your kid will have a blast doing this activity. And kids are more receptive to learning when they are having fun anyway. So this activity can double up to be a learning exercise as well. You can talk about a dog's needs and requirements and elements of a house. That not only put names to things that they see around the house but increase their vocabulary too. You can also explain them the importance of each element like door and windows. If this activity is done in a group (like I plan to do) then you can teach them how to work in a team, divide work and have patience.

If you liked this post and decide to try it with your kids then please share your experience too. I love hearing feedbacks and suggestions.

Thanks for reading and sharing.