There are several methods for making these fun pop-up houses or neighborhoods, but all of them share the same basic materials: cardstock (or paper), scissors, markers or crayons, and some scrap paper. I’ll start with the easiest and work up.

Method 1: Building(s) Mounted on a Tab

Take a piece of paper or cardstock. Fold it in half. Then cut two slits. Open up the card, and push the tab inside the card, then close the card and crease the tab so it will pop up at 90 degree angles. Then cut out and decorate a paper house. Glue/tape it to the tab.

(There are more detailed instructions with more pictures in this Wikihow: How to Make a Pop Up Card) Here is a sample from my co-teacher Monisha.

Here are samples, from Mrs. Knight’s Smartest Artists.

You can extend this method to make a whole neighborhood by cutting several tabs, as shown in this example from Aya Kurosaki

Method 2: A House Made from the Card

Make Pop Up Cards has a nice video tutorial for how to make this card:

Or here’s a method for making a two story house. Fold paper in half. Cut two slits to make a large tab. Fold it up and crease it. Then pull the tab to the inside of the card. Now on one of the folds of the tab, cut new slits, crease it, and pull the tab in. (There are additional instructions and photos on Make and Takes.)

Here is a sample from my co-teacher.

Here are examples of this style of construction from Make and Takes and Dalia AbdelMegeed.

Method 3 – A Pop-Up Room

Start with a square piece of paper. If you don’t have one, make one, by folding up one corner of the paper to make a triangle, then trimming off the spare.

Open up your triangle, then fold the other corners together to make a triangle. Crease it. Then open it up, and fold it in half to make a rectangle shape. Then fold that in half to make a square. Crease it.

Open it up, cut a slit where one of the square folds is. Then decorate it, as shown, with a floor on one square, and walls on two squares.

Assemble it by sliding the undecorated square under the floor square and taping or gluing it.

Then fold it to make a flat book shape, and decorate the outsides of the house.

If you’re up to the challenge, it’s possible to put four of these rooms together to make a full house that folds down into a book. Find directions on Krokotak, and a video of a lovely one by Sophia Animations.

We do this project as part of our Engineering Unit, for the Build a House week.