Dollhouse Scaling Project -- Geometry Class Project

 

This weekend I found a mini-room box kit on clearance at a craft store. I picked it up and thought it would be great for my classroom when I teach ratios, similarity and scaling. It is 1/24-scale which is also known as 1/2 scale. The 1/24 scale means that for every 24 inches (or 2 feet) an object is in real life, the miniature will have 1-inch. All the dollhouses I have worked with previously have been 1/12 scale or sometimes called 1:1 scale. It is for every 12 inches (or 1 foot) a real-life object is the miniature will measure 1 inch. The kit was easy to put together though I did mess up the wallpaper on one piece.

Here is the view from the top.

As I looked at the little love seat, I thought of a green love seat in 1/12 scale my sister made from a kit when we were kids. I kept it with the dollhouse I had when I was a kid so I still have it.

And to really see the scales I took a picture of them on top of a love seat in our house.

And one more photo of the two smaller ones from the top view.

When I teach scaling and similarity in geometry class, I plan on bringing in the 1/12 love seat to compare them. This got me thinking about a project for geometry class. Dolls and trains both use scales to keep everything proportional. Kids could sketch an object from a room (like a piece of furniture) with measurements and then make a scale drawing of it showing top, front and side views. In my project I made this option 1.

Another project I have done and seen done is using the grid method to enlarge or shrink a picture. This is where you draw a one-unit grid over a picture and then using a larger or smaller scaled grid you copy each square. At the first school I taught at this is actually how the kids painted murals on the wall. They would take a picture to copy and put a grid on it. Then kids would be in charge of certain squares on the grid and paint the matching squares on the wall. This is option 2 in my project. 

You can download my project here. Please refer others here and do not share just the link. Do not sell my work.