As we finish off our back to school doll play activity, Karen shows you how to make a classroom with a working chalkboard for your dolls. This is the doll play activity AND Karen’s Friday craft in one again.
Today I want to share with you the classroom I have created for my niece as a surprise for back to school. I love this time of year and getting back to the routine of school work was always exciting for me. Whether you attend school or are homeschooled this is a craft you can customize to meet your dolls educational needs.
To make today’s craft you will need:
- a piece of recycled cardboard box or a presentation board at least 20 inches high and at least 36 inches wide. *Most standard presentation boards are 36 inches high by 48 inches wide. You may wish to have a parent help you trim it to be 20-25 inches high
- construction paper in various colors. For today’s post I used a recycled cardboard box
- a ruler
- a pair of scissors-pencil for marking your chalkboard area
- *a pair of scalloped edge or fancy paper scissors to create borders
- glue
- painter’s tape
- scotch tape
- a sponge or paint brush
- black board paint (I got mine at the dollar store) or black construction paper
- chalk or a white pencil crayon
- *print outs of school
- a flag from your country
- stickers or American girl doll catalog cut outs
Step 1- Choose where you would like your blackboard to be in your class room. Tape off the area where you would like to paint as shown above. Paint the area selected and let it dry. If you are going to use black construction paper tape or glue it into place.
Step 2- If using the classroom posters from the Doll Diaries PDF print them on your home printer. I printed mine in black and white you may wish to print them in color. Next
create your class room display boards, borders and frames for your printables. To create the borders around my displays and chalk board I used my ruler. Then I used fancy scalloped edge paper scissors from the dollar store to make the edge of the border stand out.
Step 3- Create your display boards by taping construction paper to the cardboard as shown and decorating them with the paper borders you have created. Tape or glue them into place as shown. For the top of the classroom. I used an alphabet I cut out of and old writing practice book and glued them to the border. I also cut out the times tables from an old math practice book we had and mounted it on construction paper to make it stand out.
Step 4- Add stickers and posters you have made to decorate your class room. I used American Girl Doll Stickers from my craft store, star stickers from the dollar store. I also used a piece of chalk to write on the board. If you used construction paper you can write with a white pencil crayon. Over the board with the Maps and Posters I used the American Girl letter stickers to spell out “Welcome Back” on the bottom of that board I used them again to write “Learning is Fun”
Step 5- I taped an American Flag to the back of my doll room so it would hang over the chalkboard in the classroom.
Now your class room is ready to play with. When you are not playing school this play set fits nicely behind a couch or under the bed. Simply fold and store when you are not playing school.
Here are some things for your classroom and worksheets for your dolls
- Printables for the classroom that Karen used
- Doll worksheets from Ciao Bella
- Doll school quizzes from I Heart American Girl
- Doll math worksheets
I hope you enjoyed today’s post and good luck in school this year!
firstie!
OMG for the first time I am first and this is great Char!
Secondie! I will have to do this no matter what. Another reason why I love DD
Easy awesome cute crafts.
Thirdie!
This is awesome, so gonna make it!
Great minds think alike, Karen. But I plan on keep the project display board at full size, to make more room for bulletin boards and such. And they come in great colors, but I don’t know which color to choose, since the one I used for Julie’s room is yellow. I’ll get one this weekend. And I’ll be using some stuff from the AG Doll School book I got at the AG place. Another idea I had was using velcro to attach the bulletin boards and chalkboard to amke it easier to write on and change the boards around w/ the seasons.
Thirdie
Cute!
I love it! So simple and easy, but so fun! It’s especially great that it folds flat to store it– always a good thing for large doll accessories.
Sharry: great idea with the velcro to attach new bulletin boards! You could also make windows that can, too!
Hi, this cool. But i already made a schoolroom. Oh well.
Great! I can now improve my doll study room!
Love this idea! My girls love playing school with their dolls!
oops sorry
I thought that this would be super hard when I read it it sounded SUPER easy:)
This is so cute! I used the ciao Bella worksheets they are so cute!
I love the ciaobella worksheets. I’ve used them to make my own, since my girls all go to specialized schools.
Adorable!
Cute!!
I love this idea!!!!
This is so cool how do you come up with so many ideas!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?
Hi Everyone thank you for so many nice comments. Honestly Lainey they come to me in my sleep or just when I am going to bed, I keep a note pad and pencil there for my ideas, then I can sleep.
I love all the suggestions you guys came up with. Great ideas, great people, great fun!
Cool. I just got home from my friend’s house. We rewigged 2 of her dolls in dire need of rewigging.
Awesome!!
This is so adorable! I can’t wait to make it for my dolls.
what a great idea! I love how it is an actual room that can be folded up!
WOW, I am amazed.
dollsome
Has anyone ever bought any thing off of eBay? What’s is like?
Cute!!!! My dolls would love that!!! Great idea!
ooooooh! soo cool!!!!!!!