Raising a Village

There is an old African proverb that states, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but in my seventh-grade art room, it takes a special winter white dwarf hamster to raise a village.
I love animals, but I wasn’t sure how a class pet would go over with middle-schoolers. I wondered if it would be wise to take on the extra responsibility. I also wondered if students would think they were too cool for a class pet.

Gus-Gus and Us
I know now that having a class pet in the art room is amazing! It immediately calmed students’ nerves, and many of them had never held a hamster before. Gus-Gus, named after a character from the Disney film Cinderella, became the perfect muse for art, and having a class pet helped with classroom management. I told the class that the group that best follows the rules, completes their work, and keeps their area clean gets to hold the hamster.

Our laughter and fun with Gus-Gus fostered relationships and built a village—literally. Our first year with Gus-Gus, we built a cardboard Christmas village complete with gingerbread houses. The following year, we created a village of haunted houses.

Supplies and Safety
Students brainstormed a list of supplies we could use to make houses for the Christmas village, then they did some research to find out which of the supplies were safe for a hamster to consume. This included cardboard, paper, white glue, and nontoxic markers, but no tape, hot glue, staples, or permanent markers, which meant that patience would be the number-one commodity.

Considering the Enclosure
I asked students, “What can we use to make an enclosure so Gus-Gus can run around the village but not get away?” I noted that it would be ideal if we could see clearly through the material.

Students worked in groups to choose a material and searched online for the best price. To determine how much material was needed, students were shown the area where the enclosure would be placed (spanning across two tables). Each group measured the tables as one unit, then created a price plan for the enclosure.

We discussed each groupʼs material and plans as a class and compared them with the budget, safety of Gus-Gus, ease of construction, aesthetics, and functionality. Ultimately, we chose Plexiglas for the enclosure because it met all of our criteria.

Planning the Houses
Next came the designs for the gingerbread houses. Students considered architectural questions such as, What do I want my gingerbread house to look like? How big do I want it? Are there any restrictions on size? Do I want to build it so the hamster can go from floor to floor?

Once students had the perfect house in mind, they drafted plans with geometric shapes for each element (e.g., the wall, roof, and door). Measurements were written on the side of each shape. Using their drafted designs, students created a paper version of their house first.

The Cardboard Village
The paper houses took a long time to complete, but we had an abundant supply of paper, and it allowed students to use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to learn the process and save our limited supply of cardboard.

It was a challenge to put four walls together without tape, staples, or hot glue. One simple solution was to cut slips of paper and glue them on like tape to hold the walls in place. After working out techniques like this, students had more confidence when it came time to work with the cardboard. At this point, they understood that if their walls weren’t the same size, their house might look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Building the cardboard walls, multiple rooms, and stories became easier as the work progressed. Using non-toxic markers, students made colorful paper candy to decorate their gingerbread houses.

Building the Enclosure
Plexiglas comes in different sizes and thicknesses. Before I purchased it at a local store, I asked for the sheets to be cut to the proper dimensions.

To build the walls of the enclosure, students overlapped and glued the Plexiglas pieces end to end using multipurpose glue. By doing it this way, Gus-Gus wouldn’t be able to eat the toxic glue. Cardboard was placed on the outside along each corner to connect the walls.

Students placed their gingerbread houses in the enclosure complete with a Christmas train, larger-than-life candy, and snow. Making a haunted village the following year was equally fun, and it was accompanied by a written ghost story.