Mini-roundhouse!

This issue’s YAC Attack is our most ambitious uprights as a doorway. project yet! Have a go at building your own Leave about 3cm mini-roundhouse; a perfect Christmas holiday at the top of the activity for you and your friends. Good luck – uprights sticking out; and do send in pictures of your roundhouses! this is where the roof 5 will join on. You will need: n MDF board 30cm x 30cm and approx 6. Time to get mucky! 8mm thick Daub the walls using clay. Wait for the daub n Drill to dry before adding n Eight lengths of dowel 12cm long, 10mm in the roof. 5 diameter for uprights 7. Add the roof by lashing n Eight lengths of dowel 25cm long, 8mm in the 8mm dowel beams to diameter for roof structure the upright poles using n Hacksaw twine. Tie the beams n Hammer (optional; our pegs needed a bit of together where they a whack!) meet in the centre. For 6 the example picture, we n Glue to hold dowel uprights in place firmly added the roof beams n Twigs or lolly sticks to make struts in-between before building the walls. roof beams 8. Add struts of twigs or n Garden twine for binding lolly sticks in between n Scissors the beams; these are n Willow or hazel lengths for wattle walls (you necessary to give stability might find some in your garden or at your and allow thatch to be local garden centre); or you can use basket 7 tied on. weaving canes available from craft shops 9 n Clay for daub (you could add straw for 9. Tie the raffia into authenticity!) small bundles and then, working from n Raffia or similar material for the roof thatching the bottom up, tie n An adult to help! these bundles onto Pre-preparation the beams and struts to thatch your roof. You may need to soak the willow/hazel lengths In this example overnight to ensure that they are flexible picture, we thatched 10 Method the roof before daubing the walls. 1. Draw a circle about 25cm in diameter onto your base. 10. You’ve now finished building your 2. Ask an adult to drill eight holes around the roundhouse! edge of your circle at regular intervals. The Well done! holes must be big enough for your 10mm dowel lengths to fit in tightly. 3. Ask an adult to help you cut your dowel into the correct lengths for both the roof and Extra Ideas! uprights using a hacksaw. n You may want to test your handy work! Place a sponge inside your roundhouse, and 4. Glue your upright dowels (10mm diameter) pour a known quantity of water over the roof to into the base. Leave them to dry so that they simulate rainfall. Squeeze out your sponge to are secure before you build your wall. see how much ‘rain’ got through! 4 5. Weave the willow n Once you’ve finished your roundhouse, why lengths in and out of don’t you paint it and decorate it with Bronze the uprights to build Age or Iron Age designs?! Visit the YAC your wall, leaving one website at www.yac-uk.org for some ideas. section between two

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