Library Card Table House

The kids have been having a great time in the card table playhouse I made them last month (http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2014/12/card-table-playhouse.html), so I decided to add another house for them to play in. (The kids have lots of ideas for other places we can create in our "town".)

One of the reasons I decided to make a library is because my kindergartner has been getting books to read for homework. I thought making a library would help add some excitement into learning how to read, and this also provides a good spot for us to keep all of his practice books and sight words.

And to make things even easier for me, a friend gave me some pieces of muslin fabric, so I didn't even have to sew any of the panels together. The piece was big enough to fit over the entire table.

Here is the front of the library. The door is just attached on the top. The mailbox lid is shut with a piece of Velcro. It is sewn on so there is a pocket for the mail to stay. I wrote Carlson Public Library right on the muslin with a Sharpie. The mailbox is made from felt. The door is made from fabric leftovers I had.

What library doesn't have a dropbox? I had originally cut a window here, but decided I wanted to turn that into the dropbox, so I sewed on two pieces of felt to make the dropbox. The little opening is where the books slide in. 

This is the inside of the dropbox. I sewed it so the muslin made a little pocket on the inside of the dropbox. This way the books will slide right in the pocket. On this panel, I also drew a desk on a piece of brown felt. Then I attached that to the muslin. I wrote "Free Wifi" on the wall and attached a clock. 

The clock is also a great learning tool. I cut a circle out of yellow felt. Then I cut hands out of a white foam sheet. I attached the hands with a fastener so they can move around the clock. Then I sewed the clock on the muslin. 

On the back panel, I sewed on some brown felt pockets. I wrote "Fiction", "Nonfiction", and"Magazines" on the fabric above each of the pockets. I also cut out a window. 

On the other side panel, I sewed on three pieces of brown fabric to look like shelves. I also sewed on a  strip of velcro on each shelf. I put sticky back velcro tabs on the back of the books so they stick to the shelves. I also made a pocket to hold all of David's sight words. The spot with the owl fabric is a window with that fabric acting as a curtain. It rolls up and velcros open when they want to open the window.

The inside front panel has another shelf holding a picture of what our book of the week is. My plan is to have a different book each week for the month of January. All of our crafts for the week will revolve around our book of the week. The first book is "The Mitten".