Make a Plan and Gather Tools and Materials

Make a Plan

Before beginning to build your shoebox habitat is a very good idea to make a plan and to gather the tools and materials you will use to build you shoebox habitat.

In class, students gathered information on various animals and plants that live in their habitat and made posters of the habitat. Students are to use these as the basis for their shoebox diorama. Sometimes the scope of the posters is a bit larger than what can fit comfortably into a shoebox diorama. In these cases, students should choose a portion of their poster as the basis for their shoebox diorama. As you are building your diorama, keep your poster handy so you can use it as a reference to help you place the animals and plants where they belong in your diorama.

Tools

As part of the science and technology curriculum, students are learning that tools make work easier. Being organized and having the correct tools at hand before you begin a task will help you to suceed. Here is a list of the tools that were used to make the sample coral reef diorama:

• scissors
• hot glue gun (remember to wear gloves when using a hot glue gun)
• ruler
• pencil
• paint brushes in a vareity of sizes
• popsicle sticks

I am sure there are other tools you might like to use. As long as it makes the job easier use the tools you like. I really like using a glue gun as it reduces the time you have to wait between gluing various items in the diorama and the overall time spent building the diorama is greatly reduced.

Materials

The materials you use in your diorama are only limited by your imagination and the requirment that no store bought animal or plant figures be used in the construction. Think about the materials you are going to use and how they will fit into the diorama and your plan. If you have chosen a material that you does not meet your needs discard it and use something else. Sometimes a little bit of trial and error will help lead you to modify your plan and make your diorama even better.

I try to use dollar store, DIY store and found objects for the materials in the dioramas I build. This keeps the cost down and help the imagination take over. Many items for your diorama can be found outside and for free. Just remember not to damage living things when taken things from the environment for your shoebox diorama. Here is the list of materials and sources that were used to build the sample coral reef diorama:

• shoebox (any shoe store)
• premixed spackle - drywall filler (DIY store)
• pink foam rigid insulation (DIY store)
• hotglue (dollar store)
• acrylic paint in various colours (dollar store)
• plasticine in various colours (dollar store)
• small styrofoam balls (dollar store)
• construction paper (dollar store)
• tissue paper in various colours (dollar store)
• small googlie eyes (dollar store)
• sparkly pipe cleaners (dollar store)
• craft sand or aquarium sand (dollar store or pet store)
• aquarium rocks (pet store)

Once you have you plan ready and tools and materials together it is time to start building your diorama.