There was a bonus activity in Travis’s latest issue of High Five magazine: doors, windows, and awnings to cut out and affix to paper bags to make a whole paper bag town. All you need to supply are the paper lunch bags.

This was quite similar to a little village Travis and I put together recently, but oddly this time he was way more into it – I think because the doors and other building details came ready-made and he loved the way they looked!

Cutting along the dotted lines is great practice for little hands, though I had to help with some of the trickier shapes like awnings.

Travis preferred taping on the features rather than gluing, so that we could play right away.

Pretty soon we had: a library; a shoe store; a school; a toy store; and a bakery.

The instructions recommend stuffing with newspaper so the buildings hold their shape, before taping closed, but Travis insisted that he be able to open and close the doors. I made a cut out in the bag around each taped door so that he could swing them open and closed, and let Duplo people go inside.

This meant we left the bags un-stuffed, so they were a bit flimsier, but he had such a blast it hardly mattered!

Cute idea, thanks High Five!