DLTK's Crafts for Kids Schoolhouse Paper Craft Believe it or not, we're going to make this paper schoolhouse craft with two 6 inch (ish) squares and two 3 inch (ish) squares (and a bell *grin*).  This is a great lesson in geometry for older children and a fun paper craft for younger ones!

OLDER KIDS - Geometry practice: 

• Pay attention to what's happening when you split up the squares (cut diagonally = triangle, cut vertically = rectangle). 
• Use a ruler to measure the height and length of the squares and of the pieces after you've cut them out.  Write down your observations (2 of the sides of the big triangle will be the same length as the square that they came from, the rectangles will be as long as the squares they came from and 1/2 the width.   The smaller triangles have two sides 1/2 the length of the squares they came from.)

YOUNGER KIDS - Shapes and cutting practice:

• Sort your shapes.  Which are squares?  Which are rectangles?  Which are triangles?  This can be done at various stages during the cutting out.
• Which shapes are BIGGER?  Which are SMALLER?

Materials:

• scissors,
• glue,
• something to color with
• a ruler (optional).

Instructions:

• Print out the templates of choice (B&W or color)
• You can either color in the template now or you can wait until it is assembled and the glue is dry.
• Cut out the template pieces.  The first one is easier, so if you have young children who are just learning to use scissors, you can have them cut out template one while you cut out template two.
• These instructions are also on the template so don't worry if it sounds confusing
    
  • Glue the roof (big triangle) to the building (big square from template 1) to make the outline of the school
  • Glue the roof grate (small triangle), the door (small square from template 1) and windows (small rectangles) to the school.
  • Glue the bell tower roof (small triangle) to the bell tower (small square).  Glue the bell from template 1 into the bell tower.
  • Glue the bell tower to the roof of the school.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
     
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template 1   (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 2   (color)   or   (B&W)