We Built This City

Robbie was off of school all last week - so I had to come up with a big project that could span several days. Of course, an unexpected house guest helped in occupying him - but we also build a city! I had been hoarding boxes for weeks now to make this happen. I wrapped each box in butcher paper (I have a huge roll bought from Creation Station) and the kids decorated them for buildings... and sometimes stacking them to make sky scrapers. The best part is that the buildings could be moved around.

We used Her Cup Overfloweth's idea for streets... but I put the whole thing on a folding table so it could be moved out of the way when not in play. We taped down a few sheets of green and blue for parks and water.

Finally, we finished the city of with a little green. Using the grass from Easter, we made little trees. We also used plastic egg halves for bushes. Here's a quick tutorial for the trees - Robbie loved this little project because we recycled.

Materials;
Paper Bag
Scissors
Tape
Green Easter Grass (you could also use tissue paper)

Step 1: Cut the bottom off the paper bag. We used a grocery bag from Trader Joes.

Step 2: Once the bottom has been cut off, I folded the rest of the bag flat and cut it in half leaving me a rectangular piece of paper that was folded in half (sorry if that doesn't make sense). From this piece, I cut out a circle... and then I cut the circles into quarters. Each half bag gave us 8 trees.

Step 3: Line up several pieces of the Easter grass. Pinch them in the middle and twist.

Step 4: Tape the middle of the grass to the top of the wrong (printed) side of a quartered circle.

Step 5: Place a piece of tape along one of the long edges of the quartered circle and roll it to make a cone using the tape to secure it.

Step 6: Spread the green out a bit to make it look more like the top of a tree.

This project also allowed my son to use his own creativity. He made street signs by using corks and people with wooden spools. Then we pulled out the Hot Wheels and the kids put their city into action!

** My son also blogged about the city - please stop by and tell him "hi" - Thanks!