Not everyone knows it, but the local newspaper has bolt ends of newspaper that they will never use. If you go down to the office and ask they will give you these bolt ends of paper for free. They are about 24” wide and very in length and are great for making banners, large charts, etc. I always kept a couple around when the kids were little so that we could make paper villages on days when we couldn’t go outside. The old house you see in the upper left corner of this page is an old farmhouse that we once owned. It was built in 1753 and had wide chestnut plank flooring. The rooms were large enough that we could push the furniture to the walls, roll up the carpet and clear a large place in the middle of the room.
            Once the floor was cleared, we’d carefully tape strips of paper from the bolt ends to the floor covering all the bare space. The kids would take their crayons and draw roads, sidewalks, parking lots, and gardens etc. on the paper. Next we’d take the old paper grocery bags that I’d saved and make houses, schools, a firehouse, police station, etc., out of the paper bags. All you need to do is to cut a door and some windows into the paper bags (parental supervision needed) and then color with crayons. Old shoe boxes make great tunnels.  If you have a train set you might want to add that too. It all depends on how far you are willing to go. Add a little bit of poly fill for smoke coming out of the chimneys and you’ve got a village!       Now, add some Tonka trucks and matchbox cars and you’ve got a great way to spend a gloomy day!