DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Dog Sled Paper Model

This is a challenging color, cut and paste paper craft that turns into a three dimensional model of a dog sled pulled by a team of huskies.  To make it a little easier, you could skip the dogs and just do the sled (or just do one or two dogs).

It's a good craft for a few people to work on together -- everyone can make a dog to pull the sled.

The Inuit (the indigenous people of the Arctic) used groups of dogs - usually huskies or malamutes - to help with their hunting and to help them haul supplies.  Their dogs pulled a sled, which the Inuit called an "uniek" (see photo to the right).  The Inuit could ride on the back of the uniuk and use the bed to haul goods.

The pieces of the real uniek look a little bit like wood, but wood is very scarce in the arctic.  The sled is actually made from whale bones!

Dog sleds pulled by dogs are still sometimes used in the arctic though motorized snow mobiles are more common.

Read more about our family's dog-sledding adventure.

Materials:

• printer,
• glue,
• scissors,
• something to color with (for the black and white version),
• a piece of paper
• printer
• wool or string

Instructions:

• Print out the template of choice - the sled is on one page and the dogs are on another.
• Color the pieces as appropriate and cut them out.  Some of the pieces for the dogs are quite small.  Remember that most huskies have white fur so if you don't quite cut along the lines, it's ok!  Your dog's will still look great with a bit of extra white paper showing.

The Sled:

• The first step is to make the box for the dog sled.
  • Fold along the dotted lines and
  • Apply glue to the tabs.
  • Now carefully push the tabs inside the box so the box shape stays together.  It's easier to glue the tabs on the outside than the inside, so if the children prefer that don't worry, it's ok!
  • Set the box on the table and glue the sides of the sled onto the sides of the box. 
     
    Note that you can glue the sides of the sled onto a thin piece of cardboard to make them a little sturdier.  We didn't do this and found the sled turned out just fine without the cardboard.  The planks in the next step will help keep the sides from being floppy.
• Fold along the dotted lines of the 4 planks and, using a little glue, attach three of them to the "bed" of the sled (the part you would put packages on) and one of them to the handle of the sled.

The Dogs:

• The template has four small dogs on it but you can make as many or as few as you want.  The size of a dog team depends on how much weight they'll be pulling on the sled.
• Fold the head in half and glue the two halves together so it's colored on both sides.
• Glue the ears onto the top of the head (they don't have to match up, you can leave one cocked forward while the other tilts backward).  These are itty bitty little pieces so take your time!
• Cut along the dotted line on the head (this cuts about halfway through the neck, allowing the head to slide onto the body.
• Fold the body in half, cut along the dotted line near the neck.
• Slide the top dotted line cut from the head into the body cut.  Apply a bit of glue as necessary -- we added glue where the head met the body and about halfway down the chest (we likely used a little too much!).
• Glue the dog's tail and a bit of his behind together, so the tail is colored on both sides.
• Leave the legs unglued so the huskies will stand up on their own.
• Cut as many pieces of string as you have dogs.  The pieces should each be about a foot to 2 foot long.  If you aren't sure, cut them a little too long -- remember that you can always cut them a little shorter afterwards but you can't cut them longer!
• Tie a slip knot "lasso" at the end of each string (this may require an adult's help)
• Lasso each of our dog's heads with one of your strings
• Use a bit of glue or tape to attach the strings to the sled (either to the handles or to the planks on the bed).
• Note:  we used hemp string because that's what we had lying around (Kaitlyn uses it to make friendship bracelets).  It was too stiff for this type of project, making it harder to get the dogs all arranged how we wanted them.  A light, flexible string is what you want!
• Display your project!  It's made of paper so display it somewhere away from a breeze.

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 - dog sled      (color)   or   (B&W)

Template - 4 sled dogs   (color)   or   (B&W)

Print friendly version of these instructions

Husky paper model

Iditarod (dog sledding race) Coloring Pages