Build a Log Cabin

This is another great Pioneer activity that goes well with the Little House series of books. In the Little House books, Laura and her Family lived in log cabins, except for when they lived at Plum Creek. We decided to have a go and build a log cabin from interlocking paddle pop sticks.

Some pioneers had dirt floors and some had wooden floors. For our log cabin, we included the wooden floors as it also helped make our cabin more stable.

To make the floor, place two paddle pop sticks down vertically a few inches apart. Drizzle glue on them (I used a hot glue gun) and line up another two paddle pop sticks horizontally on top. This should make a square. Fill in the square with paddle pop sticks so that you have one flat floor.

To make the walls, we used interlocking paddle pop sticks and built the wall 6 full paddle pop sticks high on all four sides. Then I cut out the door and a small window with scissors. You can glue these as you go to make your log cabin stronger.

The roof was made by making two more floors and gluing them together in a point. When the glue was dry, we glued the roof to each side of the log cabin.

Once the roof was added, we continued with the 3 shorter top walls on the front and back of the cabin. For this, we just cut plain paddle pop sticks to the size we needed and added them using the end pieces of the interlocking paddle pop sticks.

For the chimney, we created a box of paddle pop sticks by gluing 3 paddle pop sticks together and when dry, cutting them into the correct shape. Once completely dry, we glue it to the roof.