How to make doll-house sized roundwood roofs?

A few years back (see this thread about daub and this thread about the foundation), I taught my medieval history class how to make little wattle & daub houses. The hardest part was the roofs. The square roofs needed a LOT of lashing, and the round roofs were just sticks bundled together with a rubberband, and then round reed woven around it to attach the thatching to. These roofs loved to squeeze up and get narrow.

Here you can see the examples of the houses we built two years ago:





I'm not happy with how the thatching turned out, nor with the roof structure. Before the roofs were added, the buildings were a lot more eye-catching:



This year, I'm having my botany/ethnobotany class make wattle & daub fairy houses. This has resulted in some really cool builds that will require a lot more customization...and I'm not that skilled at roofing. Anyone have any ideas for easier and better roof builds that 5-12 year olds can make with limited adult help (I have 12 students in a class, and usually only one or two parent volunteers in the class.)

Hi Nicole - I love the little houses. Your students are obviously having a lot of fun whilst learning!

I came across corbel roofs last year and they may be something for you to consider - The difficulty again will be making them removable.


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Reciprocal roofs would be amazing to do, but again very fiddly to secure.


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I think you're main problem is how to secure the structure - the fixings. Whether it is cordage or nails or some sort of interference like weaving, they are all pretty fiddly until the whole lot is in place.

Maybe some sort of jig to hold the twiggy structure in place while they do the weaving? Some clay/blocks that they could stick them in?

I've been having more thoughts (and experiments) about this.
I experimented with willow stars and star wands, thinking that they might be able to be used as planar building materials into a dome type structure, but again tying them together is like juggling spaghetti!



Now I wonder whether some sort of basket might work?

If they can make a willow (or other weaving material) hoop of the diameter of the house, then iy may be possible to make some sort of coracle structure by inserting sticks into both sides in a hoop.


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Another alternative is a coiled structure (think earthbag domes and polynesian homes) I don't know whether making a load of rope maybe too much, but maybe you can get hold of some bulky soft plaits that can be sewn into a dome?

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Again may turn out quite fiddly without glue, but the structures people  make are amazing! Here's one from Iraq, but I think they had a similar style in polynesia.


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Lastly, I ha d a thought about chines style parasols, and wonder whether something could be done with folded paper?


hereis a simple tutorial. It isn't roundwood framing though!