What to do with all your Newspapers

So, you buy several papers a week, aside from recycling them all what can you do with them? You can make a fort!!

Creative Kids at Home has a great idea on how to make a fort - child sized or doll sized! Its a great indoor, rainy day project I think! Go to the website for step-by-step pictures!!

Supplies
Newspaper

stapler

tape/glue

pencil

scissors

Dynamite Dome can be made in two different sizes. Kids will be able to sit and play inside the full-size playhouse. The small playhouse could be used as a play fort for action figures, or covered with handkerchief to make a doll house. The full-size playhouse uses whole sheets of newspaper. You need to cut the whole sheet into 4 equal pieces to make the small size playhouse. The building instructions are the same for either size dome. Building a playhouse will take some time, perhaps 90 minutes.

1. Making Logs
For a full-size Dome, open 4 sheets of newspaper on top of each other. For the small Dome use two of the 1/4 sheet pieces. Starting at one corner, use a pencil to help you roll the paper diagonally into a log. Slip the pencil out of the log, and tape the log shut. You will need 25 logs to make your dome. Trim all the logs to be the same length cutting off the weak edges of the logs.

2. Building Blocks
Staple three logs together to make a triangle. Make five triangles, using 15 of your logs. These triangles for the building blocks for the walls.

3. Sides of the Dome
Lay the five triangles out in a row with their bottom corners touching. Staple the bottom sides together to create a straight line across the bottom. Staple four logs across the top. Stand the walls up in a ring/pentagon. Use one log to staple the walls of the playhouse together across the top. Leave the bottom row open to creative a doorway, or staple it together for more stability.

4. Making the Roof
Staple the ends of five logs together into a star that forms the roof of the playhouse.

5. Finishing the Dome
Staple each arm of the star to a corner point on the top of the wall. When making a full size playhouse, it helps for have a child in the center of the dome holding the star at right height for stapling.

6. Finishing Touches
put a light weight sheet over the playhouse to make a secret fort;
paint the logs before you put the dome together;
glue pieces of tissue paper over the open triangles to create a stain glass window effect.

Use these logs to build other structures too!