How to Make a Clifford Dog House for a Classroom Reading Corner

Norman Bridwell is the children's book author of the series of books about Clifford the Big Red Dog, published by Scholastic books. The stories focus on the adventures and lessons learned by the Clifford, an absolutely enormous red dog, owned by a young girl named Emily Elizabeth. If you have fans of Clifford in your classroom or a lot of Clifford books, making a simple doghouse out of cardboard that resembles the ones in the books for your reading corner, is a wise idea. It will entice kids to come to your reading corner, as Clifford is there in his house all the time, reading his own book. Also, it gives kids the impression that there's an element from an actual story, present in their classroom.

Large rectangular cardboard box
Marker
Box cutter
Tape
Acrylic paint: blue and light yellow
2-inch wide brush

Instructions

- 1
  Turn your box over and label the bottom side, "bottom." Label the two upright, longest vertical sides, "side 1" and "side 2" respectively. Cut off the flaps from these two longest sides and set them aside for later.
- 2
  Write on the two upright shortest side, "front" and "back." Draw an upside down U-shape on the front and cut it out. This is the door.
- 3
  Draw an upside down V-shape on the flap attached to this front side. The upside down V-shapes should go from the corners where they are folded to the center top. Repeat with the flap on the back side. Cut out the cardboard around these shapes so that theses two flaps look like pointy triangles.
- 4
  Place the two flaps you set aside in step one side by side. Tape them together with a single length of tape. These two sides will fall into a natural upside-down V-shape for your roof.
- 5
  Run a thin line of tacky glue along the top edge of the house, as well as the two pointy flaps. Place the upside down V-shaped roof over the house, arranging each pointy flap against the undersides of the front and back ends of this roof. Allow an hour for the glue to set.
- 6
  Paint the house light yellow and the roof blue with acrylic paints and a 2-inch brush. Spell out the name "Clifford's Reading Corner" over the door in blue paint.
- 7
  Add a big Clifford dog to the inside of the doghouse, with its head sticking out. Place an open book under its paws, making it look like the dog is reading. Arrange other stuffed animals around the dog and the doghouse to create a sense of friendly coziness that will entice students to sit down in the reading corner with a book.

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