Hands On House

“The space within becomes the reality of the building.” —Frank Lloyd Wright

Roll up your sleeves and help construct a beautiful new house. When you’ve finished the building, don’t forget to add some decorations!

Things to Do: 
  • Use simple machines like wheels and pulleys to move materials.
  • Crank soft-sculpture rocks on a conveyor and drop them down a chute to the ground.
  • Raise the Museum flag over the house.
  • Choose stucco, wood, or brick panels to finish the exterior of the house.
  • Pretend to paint and fix up the house.
  • Shingle the roof.
  • Apply kitchen tiles, wallpaper, and carpet inside the house.
  • Pick up soft rocks using a digger.
  • Landscape the exterior with wheelbarrows, movable shrubs and soft stepping stones.
Learning Outcomes: 
  • Experience properties of objects and materials: quantity, size, shape, weight, color, pattern, position, length, and width.
  • Investigate systems and the interaction of parts within a system through sequential patterns and the relationship of elements.
  • Recognize and investigate a design problem, discover multiple solutions.
  • Engage in cooperative play and problem solving.

Underwritten by Prairie Material with additional support from Baird & Warner