Almost any upper elementary student has made a diorama or shadow box before. Rainforest dioramas are a good way to test students' understanding of the ecosystem.
Materials
small cardboard box for each student (shoe box or a little larger)
craft supplies--whatever you have on hand--including construction paper, copier paper, light cardboard, crayons, paint, markers, modeling clay, aluminum foil, pipe cleaners, glitter, small stones and twigs
tape and glue
thread and/or string
Six Easy Steps
One
Before you start to work on your box, think about the rainforest scene you want to portray. What plants and animals will you include? What scale will you choose? For example,
Large scale - tall trees, vines, swinging monkeys, flying birds, eagle nest
Medium scale - inside a tree canopy, monkey troop, bromeliads, ants and frogs
Small scale - a bromeliad pool filled with mosquito larvae, dart frog tadpole, algae
Will there be people in your forest? What will they be doing?
Whatever you choose, make your diorama true to life in the rainforest. Stick to the facts that you know, but at the same time fill your scene with interesting, amazing stuff, like a real forest. If necessary, do a little more research on what you like most about the forest before you make your diorama.
Two
Prepare your box. If you're not using a shoebox, you may need to cut off flaps or cut out a side. Aim for something that looks like a shoe box without it's top, turned on one side. If you're using a shoe box and it has a lid, set your box, long side down, in the lid and use the part of the lid that sticks out as ground.
Larger boxes can hold complex and interesting rainforest scenes that show lots of detail. For example, two adjacent sides off an empty copier paper carton for a good three-sided frame.
Three
Use paint, markers or crayons to color the inside of your box. If you're using crayons or markers, you may need to line the interior with paper. Or, use colored construction paper to line your box.
Four
Draw and color rainforest plants and animals. If you're using thin paper, you may need to glue it onto cardboard to stiffen it up. Cut out your figures, leaving a tab that you can attach to the floor or wall of your box.
Use--
Twigs for tree trunks or branches. Make leaves and tape them onto the twigs.
Pipe cleaners for smaller tree trunks, branches, animal legs, or vines.
String for vines. Glue on some leaves.
Thread to hang flying birds, butterflies, or other animals from the roof of your diorama. If your diorama has no roof, hang some vines across the top and suspend animals from vines.
Glitter for raindrops on leaves
Clay for animals and plants or to make bases for paper animals and plants
Foil for water (rivers and waterfalls) or to make bases for animals and plants--or for stars for a rainforest at night (bat world!)
Five
Many museums use dioramas to portray scenes from nature or human communities. They usually include a written notices on the walls next to dioramas, telling a little about what's going on. Write a description of what's happening in your diorama.
Six
When all dioramas are finished, line them up and create a rainforest museum in your hallway.
BIORAMAS
An
alternative for kids who want to do something different. Make a
shadow-box representation of a life-science concept or
process.
For example--
Butterfly, ant, or frog metamorphosis
Pollination or germination
Development from egg to adult
Camouflage coloration
Transpiration or water cycle
Strangler fig germination and growth
More Diorama Ideas
Enchanted Learning
www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Oceandiorama.shtml
everything you need to know to make an ocean diorama, including templates
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