Young at Art: Making Little Paper Houses

"The stickers are the passcode and then this (area covered with clear tape) is the secret door. My little snake named snaky lives there."
"Mine is a house - he has to go in and type a code and say what he wants and his house will be a hot tub, a pool, a tennis court or a regular room." "My house has a smiley face code and a number code.  When he counts to 10, a steering wheel pops up and when he counts to 10 again, he blasts off!"

After an intense kitchen-table building session featuring construction paper, stickers, scissors and a lot of tape, young architects are eager to describe the home they created for small wooden animals. Each successive description gains in complexity as layers of codes and secrets are added to the dwellings. My table now features a high security and highly transformable neighborhood with three resident builders ready to add new features.

While the imaginative stories are wonderful, the technical skill and invention of the buildings are equally delightful. Tape is a great media for instant gratification. There is no waiting around for the glue to dry or worry about cleaning up a sticky mess.  

It is a nice summertime material because kids can use it independently with the only limitation being the end of the roll. For paper and tape construction, plentiful tape is key as is an easy-to-use dispenser or easily torn tape allowing for maximum independence.  

A variety of types of tape - colored and clear - can add fun variety and features. Scissors, colorful paper and stickers are other easy-to-find office supply type art supplies found in most homes.  Kids can invent ways to fold, form and cut the paper into new shapes and structures and are even able to fashion windows and doors without the need for adult assistance required by building with cardboard.

Action figures, toy animals and other small creatures happily inhabit these homes. Kids may even be inspired by the secret mushroom village of the blue fellows in the latest "Smurfy" summer movie.

Take time to interview your young architects about the special features of their homes - a next step might be to encourage kids to arrange dwellings in a community and perhaps add other shared features such as a workshop, park or store.