Paper Bag Village

Last week for MOMS Camp we studied all about Neighborhoods and Communities! This meant a week of police cars, firetrucks, roads, houses and neighbors. This was such a fun week for both my kids! I am so excited for Ben (2) to be able to really participate in our weekly activities now that he's a year older this summer!

One activity we made was a paper bag village! We used a little kit to make one from an old High Five magazine which I had been saving for nearly a year! The kit included miniature doors, windows, signs, and decorative plants to cut out. You can of course make your own building accessories out of construction paper and either keep them plain or color them. Glue your doors and windows, etc onto paper lunch bags which become your buildings! Use paper grocery bags for a larger scale village. Well, maybe that would be more like a city... heh.

When they are dry, fill each bag with something like wadded up paper or packing peanuts or air bags (which is what we used) to help them stand up. Fold over the top and staple shut. Our little village included a bank, library, preschool, grocery store, and pharmacy but you can include any other community buildings you want! Houses and a post office would make good additions.

We placed our paper bag village along the streets on a rug we have so all our cars could drive around town! I admit that Ben later used our village buildings as soccer balls, but the good news is that it's just paper bags so they're still in one piece!