House/Home Living center

This is a picture of the house that my brother and I made two summers ago for my pre-k classroom. It was very simple, but time consuming. First you need to decide how big you want your house frame to be. I bought a large piece of ply wood and two sets of inexpensive wood shelves. Each shelf was only about two feet tall. You can find these shelf units at Target, Walmart, or Home Depot. I kindly asked the paint department at my local Home Depot for large paint stirrers. They were nice enough to give me these without a charge. They are used as the picket fence. My brother first used a jigsaw (I think?) to cut the house shape out of the ply wood. Then we simply attached the front of the house on either side to the shelves using screws and nails. I think we went back at used wood glue for added support. I painted the house and shelves a baby blue color and I used a lid to stencil the circular design on the rood edge. We did this in a weekend. The total cost was probably about $100, but it was well worth it. My students have really enjoyed it!