Build Your Own Log House

The School House Museum showcases much of the Upper Ottawa Valley’s history, a large part of which depicts the ways of pioneer life. A prime example of such living on the School House grounds is our log house.

The log house is filled to the brim with interesting artifacts about life in the 1800s, but with this craft, we’d like to show a little appreciation to the building that encompasses it all. In this activity, we’re going to walk you through the steps of building your own log house on paper: a simple, entertaining and low cost activity for children (it’s pretty fun for adults too).

Materials

Instructions

1. An optional step, but definitely more fun if you choose to do it. Take out your popsicle sticks and paint them to match the colour of wood or any colour of your choosing. Have fun with it! Mix and match different shades for different colours on your house.

2. Go foraging! We want this log house to look as rustic as possible so gathering materials directly from nature is the best way to go. I chose rocks, pine needles and a pine cone to decorate my log house. Make sure to rinse off your materials to get rid of any dirt or grime.

3. Trace a square on your cardboard using your popsicle sticks. The length and width should be the same size as the popsicle sticks you are using. Cut out the square and glue it to a piece of paper. Follow that up by tracing a triangular piece of cardboard. Just like the square, use your popsicle sticks so the sides of triangle are the same size as your popsicle sticks. Cut out the triangle and glue it to the piece of paper on top of the square.

4. Glue your popsicle sticks on the square piece of cardboard in rows. Then, take two popsicle sticks and glue them to the side of your triangular piece of cardboard. If you haven’t painted your popsicle sticks but still wish to colour them, fill them in with marker once they are glued down and dried. If you’d like, you can leave them blank.

5. Start decorating! Make some windows and doors with rocks, add shingles to your roof with bits of pine cone, make a welcome mat out of pine needles…the options are limitless! Keep in mind that if your outdoor

6. Now for the finishing touch; use your markers to draw scenery in the background of your log house. Add whatever you think would look best. Once that is done, you have officially completed your log house.

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Thank you for trying out this craft! Let us know in the comments below what you thought and how it worked for you. Share pictures of your own log houses on our Facebook page.