How to Build Your Own Backyard Western Town

Part of the fun of having a backyard is exploring, creating and playing in it. One fun activity that can make for hours of entertainment both in creation and play is to build your own backyard Western town. With a few basic supplies and a dry afternoon you can make an entire town. Involve the children who will be playing in the town in the creative process so they can help build the town and then leave them to their imaginations to play for as long as they'd like.

Things You'll Need

• Large cardboard boxes from fridges, stoves, dishwashers, etc.
• Pencil
• Ruler or yardstick, as needed
• Scissors or box cutter
• Masking or duct tape
• Markers, paint, crayons, etc.

Instructions

1. Talk with your children to see what items they want to have in their Western town based on the number of boxes you have. Each box can be one building or double as two. Include buildings like a schoolhouse, a jail, saloon, a train depot, bank, corral area or trading post.

2. Make preliminary marks with pencil on the face of your boxes to note where doors and windows will be. Use scissors or a box cutter to cut out doors and windows. These can be removed or left attached on one side to create a hinge.

3. Place some of the boxes side by side like an old town and put one or two by themselves in the yard off from the main town, such as the schoolhouse. Tape the ones that will be side by side, if desired, to help hold them in place as they are played in.

4. Help the children decorate each box on the face and sides by painting or coloring walls, creating signs above doors to state which building is which and adding any personal touches they want, such as pictures of cowboy hats, cacti, or saddles. Remember to cut out a slotted window in the jail to make bars for the naughty children to look out of when they've been caught.

Tips & Warnings

• Many appliance or housewares stores are willing to give you these types of boxes for free to clear their stockroom, so ask around to make this an expense-free project.

• If the children want to continue playing but the forecast is calling for rain you'll need to remember to bring the boxes inside. Once they are rained on, the town won't look so nice.

• Use caution when cutting the boxes around children and never leave them unattended with the scissors or box cutter.

References

• "Let's Make a Memory"; Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson; 1982
• "Painting With Children"; Brunhild Muller; 2003