3 years+
This 3D activity attracted completely my children for about a whole hour!
You need:
- polystyrene (from a shop or from when you get a delivery in a carton box)
- sticks
- paper bands (black, green)
- moss
First, you tear off some 30/20cm polystyrene size pieces that will stand for the floor, then some other 10/7cm ones that will stand for the buildings in the city. When you want to put the floor and the buildings together you will have to use toothpicks (or fast action glue if your children are old enough to use it!). You insert 3/4 of 2 toothpicks in the edge that will make contact with the floor and then you push the 10/7 cm piece into the big one, until you get a stable grip. The toothpicks will keep together the building to the town-floor. You can put as many buildings you want in your town, different sizes and shapes. We stopped at 1 or 2, as the children I'm working with are very young. Using half a toothpick, you place one end of the paper band into the floor, you lift the middle of the paper up to create a bridge, then you use another half toothpick to place the other end of the paper band in the floor. YOu created a bridge that can be over a stream or over another road, whichever you choose (it gives even more of an idea of a 3D town). Using this technique of paper bands and half toothpicks you can create lots of roads, crossroads, etc.
You may also want to simply push down into the polystyrene some sticks that sand for the trees in the town and also glue some moss on an area to symbolize a park.
If you want, you can paint some areas of the buildings or of the polystyrene, or you can cut out small pieces of a newspaper to glue on the buildings and they stand for the windows of the buildings. My children decided to glue little pieces of polystyrene on the 'roads' and they stood for cars - traffic jam! That's because I only demonstrated the technique and i let them explore and they came up with the cars idea and the painting idea!
Hope you enjoy making your little towns!
