How To Make a Portable Doll School Board

Portable Doll School Board

Left: The Weather and Topics side of the board.

Right:  The Calendar, Lunch count, and classroom job side of the board.

My daughters have recently sprung up an interest in playing doll school.  I am planning on buying the American Girl Doll School book and turning their Our Generation Doll House into a school room in the future, but for now a project that I made to use in our home "classroom" inspired this doll school project.

Left:  The calendar side of our big portable classroom board for my youngest daughter and her friends that I watch during the day.
Right:  The weather side of the board.

How to Make a Portable Doll School Board:

Items Needed:

-box (I used a cereal box.) 

-packaging tape

-craft glue

-scissors

-craft paper

-mini calendar (I used a page from an American mini calendar that came with the AG magazine.)

-Other classroom board items like weather pieces, stars, shape cut outs, etc.

-Index cards

-Sharpie

-Stickers

-Ribbon for handle

Getting to Work:

Step 1:  Tape any openings on box closed.

Step 2:  Cut two hole in top side of box, stick ends of ribbon through the holes, and tie ribbon inside box to create the handle.

Step 3:  Cover all side of the box with craft paper of your choice and glue to box with craft glue.

Step 4:  Layout the school board pieces (calendar, job chart, weather, etc.) on top of the craft paper and glue down with craft glue.

Step 5:  Cover all sides of box with packaging tape.  The packaging tape serves a couple of purposes:  it acts as lamination so that the items are protected, and it allows the entire board to be written on with dry erase markers and them wiped clean.

Step 6:  Put together a small bag or container that holds dry erase marker(s), a small cloth, weather pieces (sunny cloudy, rainy, etc.) scotch tape, and any other little school related pictures that could be attached to the board at different times.

The weather pieces I made form a weather chart worksheet I used in my former kindergarten classroom.  I used packaging tape to serve as the laminate to keep them from ripping during play.

Now you are ready to play school with your dolls anywhere and anytime!

My daughter Lianna set up a little doll school to play with today.  The school board I made is sitting on a jewelry box dresser (that she borrowed from one of the dolls' bedrooms.)  "Miss Jordan" is the teacher sitting at the Zebra print desk.  Katie, Kanani, Ruthie, Mia, Alexis, and Nicki are all seated near the circle time rug waiting to begin the day.