DIY Fun: Popsicle Stick Farm House

Last summer, we ate a lot of popsicles. Especially after this little fete. And of course, after rinsing them in soapy water and letting them dry in the sun, we collected them, put them in a bag and tossed them into our art supplies box for a rainy day. We made a few things with them, including a canoe with oars and a rocket ship, and a mini ladder for some mini imaginary people. But the real reason we saved all of those sticks was to build something really cool. And so, as the sleet rained down on us and the baby napped, Milo and I got to work on a popsicle stick farm house.

Supplies Needed:

• large quantity of popsicle sticks (I estimate we used around 60)
• craft or wood glue
• strong scissors (to cut through the sticks)
• optional: pen or marker

Obviously, you can build a little house any number of ways. I tried two methods: building an a-frame house, and building walls separately, then gluing all together. This is an example of the latter.

Step 1: Line up any number of sticks to build your first wall (I started with 12, no reason):

Step 2: Draw your door (hopefully better than how I drew mine!):

Step 3: Carefully cut out your door, then glue the entire first wall together by putting a strip of glue along the entire side of each popsicle stick before pressing together gently:

Step 4: Allow to dry completely before moving.

Step 5: Repeat with three more walls, adding windows if you like!

Step 6: After about 30 minutes to an hour, the walls should be dry. You can now attach the first two walls by using another strip of glue and propping one wall at a 90-degree angle while it dries (I used the counter top and the window):

Bonus joke for you (on above popsicle stick): Why did the window go to the doctor?           It had panes.

I eyeballed it with the roof, gluing two more “walls” together but adding an extra stick in length so that the roof would overlap a bit, then glued these two identical walls together propped up in an A-shape. Once dry, the roof fit snugly on top of the house. I glued this in place too.

We added a fence and decided to paint the farmhouse since all of the popsicle sticks were stained and kind of yucky looking! The boys loved it!

This activity definitely turned out to be more of an activity to do for my kids rather than with them since they are still so young and it was kind of tricky to get the sticks to stay put while drying. But I imagine older kids would really enjoy building stuff with popsicle sticks. Definitely good for the old fine motor skills, for sure!