Have you explored the Museum’s Beaver Builders exhibit? You can build like a beaver at home, too! Choose to work outside, in a sandbox (or dirt), or in the house, using a cake pan.
- Gather twigs, sand, dirt, small stones, moss, or wet leaves.
- Form a beaver dam or lodge by stacking and layering different sizes of twigs in your sandbox or cake pan.
- Create a diorama around the beaver lodge or dam. Edge it with small rocks, pack some mud or dried grass around it, add a mossy bank, pour in water to make a lake or stream. Think like a beaver as you work!
- Explore. Does your beaver dam hold back the water? Does your beaver lodge have a doorway underwater and an air hole on top? How can you make repairs to your beaver structures?
Further Your Exploration
Learn more about beavers and building from this PBS video.
- Try making different lodges on a piece of cardboard using popsicle sticks, toothpicks, pencils, or building kits.
- Make one dam from twigs and one from toothpicks, then compare the two: Which was easier to build? Would both hold water? How are twigs and toothpicks alike?
- Add more pieces to your diorama: Make a beaver from paper, cardboard, or fabric. Add blue color to your water (how can you do this?). Make plants or trees from other twigs or grasses.
