What is a diorama, and why should you make one? What role do they play in children’s development and education?
Dioramas are small-scale, three-dimensional models. They represent scenes like historical events or animal habitats. Dioramas are typically created using a shoebox or any similar container.
Dioramas are great in educational scenarios like school projects. They’re also a fun and creative activity for both children and hobbyists.
When children build dioramas, they get to use their imagination, creativity, and even fine motor skills. The hands-on activity is a great way to teach kids about different environments, history, and storytelling.
So many of the toys from Safari Ltd. are perfect for dioramas. The broad selection of figurines let you create realistic, durable, and educational model scenes. Plus, the sheer variety of Safari Ltd. toys can inspire a broad range of dioramas.
How to Make a Diorama: Getting Started
Before you can get started building a diorama, you need to gather the right materials. These supplies include:
- Safari Ltd. figurines or TOOBS
- Good Luck Minis for small-scale details
- A shoebox or similar container.
- Arts and Craft supplies
- Natural materials like twigs, rocks, or sand for added texture.
Aside from collecting your materials, you should thoughtfully consider a few factors before you start building your diorama. What scene will you create? Perhaps you’ll choose to build a jungle, an ocean, or a prehistoric world. Make sure you can find Safari Ltd figurines to match your chosen theme.
Next, create a background for your diorama. You can decorate your container with construction paper, paint, or printed images. You can also add details by crafting trees, waves, or mountains. Try making these with natural materials.
Finally, you’ll position your figurines to tell a story. Try showing animals in action or people interacting with their environment.
Jungle Diorama: Adventure in the Rainforest
Embark on an adventure in the rainforest when you build this diorama. It’s a great chance to teach kids about biodiversity and the rainforest habitat.
Add jungle-themed figurines depicting exotic animals and plants. Safari Ltd.’s collection of wild animal figurines and Good Luck Minis features a variety of small animals that are perfect for jungle settings.
How do you create a jungle environment? Add green construction paper or paint to create dense foliage on the background of your diorama. Try adding hanging vines and tropical trees from pipe cleaners and twigs.
Create a jungle floor with fake moss, green felt, or even small rocks. You might even add water features like rivers or waterfalls with blue felt or cellophane. For an even more immersive experience, add audio to your diorama by playing rainforest sounds through a small speaker.
Ocean Diorama: Dive into the Deep Blue Sea
You can build an ocean-themed diorama to teach kids about the importance of ocean conservation. They can also learn about the ocean’s different zones and marine life diversity.
Safari Ltd.’s TOOBS collection features ocean-themed figurines that are ideal for dioramas. These include sea creatures like sharks, dolphins, and coral reef dwellers.
To create an underwater scene for your diorama, paint or cover the inside of a shoebox with shades of blue. You can add cotton balls to indicate a sky up on top. Then use different colored paper to provide your ocean depth.
Your diorama needs some interactive elements. Using fishing line, hang sea creatures like fish or jellyfish from the top of the shoebox. It will look as though they are floating in the deep blue sea.
Why not make building the diorama into a learning experience? During the activity, talk with your child about marine ecosystems and coral reefs. Discuss the ways children can help protect the oceans.
Dinosaur Diorama: A Prehistoric World
Design your own prehistoric world by building a dinosaur diorama. Perfect for families or diorama hobbyists, these projects can illustrate different periods of the Mesozoic Era. Kids can learn about how dinosaurs lived and what factors led to their extinction.
To create a prehistoric environment, use sand, small rocks, or brown paper for a rugged landscape. You also can include volcanoes made from clay or paper mache. Try crafting trees and ferns using green construction paper or moss.
Of course, your diorama won’t be complete without figurines. Safari Ltd. offers its TOOBS dinosaur collection and other prehistoric world figurines.
Turn up the fun on this activity by letting kids add fun elements like a meteorite headed toward the dinosaurs. Or tell a story by placing dinosaur figurines in ways they interact with each other and their environment.
Farm Diorama: A Day on the Farm
Your child will have a grand time down on the farm when they build a farm diorama. The activity can help them learn about farms, their importance in producing food, how animals are cared for, and how crops are grown.
To build a farm diorama, use construction paper to create a barn, fields of grass, and fences for animals. You might add small bales of hat made from yellow yarn or real straw.
Safari Ltd.’s Farm TOOBS collection features all sorts of farm animal figurines, including cows, pigs, and chickens. Add some extra flair to your farm diorama by adding a tractor or farmer figurine. Use them to create a story about daily life on the farm.
Space Diorama: Exploring the Universe
Shoot for the stars and explore the universe by building a space diorama. It’s a great way to discuss the solar system and space exploration with your child. Discuss the potential for life on other planets and let your imagination run wild.
Safari Ltd. has space-related TOOBS to illustrate small details like astronauts, planets, and rocket ships.
Your child can have a blast designing the diorama. Paint the inside of a shoebox black or dark blue, then add stars with glow-in-the-dark stickers or white paint. Create a sun by painting a Styrofoam ball yellow. Hang it, along with the planets, from the top of the box using fishing line.
Have your child create their own story about space exploration, and illustrate it in the diorama. Or, use this as a learning opportunity for children to learn the names of planets, stars, and astronauts.
Zoo Diorama: Life at the Zoo
Your child will be entertained for hours by illustrating a day at the zoo. Zoo dioramas can teach younger kids about the animals who live at the zoo and their habitats. Older kids can learn about how zoos contribute to conservation efforts.
A zoo diorama can be built by dividing a shoebox into sections that will represent different habitats like jungle, savannah, and Arctic. Add construction paper, felt, and small props to illustrate the different areas.
Once you’ve created the diorama’s background, add zoo animals figurines like the ones from Safari Ltd.’s Zoo Babies TOOBS collection, as well as other Incredible Creatures animal figurines. Before you’re done, add signage and small facts about each animal or habitat. Have your kids give tours of their zoo to family members or classmates.
Tips for Displaying and Preserving Your Diorama
Whether you’re a collector designing an intricate diorama or a parent working with your child, you’ll put in a lot of time, effort, and pride into your diorama creations. You’ll want to take a few specific steps to properly display and preserve your work. These include:
- Display Ideas: Display the diorama on a shelf. Or, you might prefer to include it as part of a larger project for a classroom or home. Either way, use clear plastic covers to keep dust off of your diorama.
- Preservation Tips: Your diorama includes delicate parts like paper and other natural materials that can degrade with time. Keep your display away from direct sunlight and moisture to preserve it.
- Rotate Displays to Prevent Fading: If your diorama is displayed in a well-lit area, occasionally rotate it to make sure no single side is exposed to sunlight for too long. Otherwise, you might see fading colors on part of the diorama.
- Use Removable Adhesive for Figures: You probably want your figurines to stay in place, but what if you want to reposition them later? Use removable, non-damaging adhesive. It lets you refresh or modify the story without damaging either the diorama or the figurines.
- Store in a Climate-Controlled Area: If your goal is long-term preservation, you should avoid storing your diorama in areas with extreme temperature fluctuations – places like basements or attics. Instead, keep your diorama in a room with consistent temperature and humidity so you prevent warping or breakdown of materials.
Encourage Creativity and Education with Dioramas
Dioramas are more than creative projects. To parents and teachers, they are tools for learning and exploration. For kids they are an entertaining way to expand their knowledge. And as far as collectors, dioramas are hobbies in which they take great pride.
If you’re looking for the perfect materials for your next diorama project, you can’t go wrong with Safari Ltd.’s collections, including figurines, TOOBS, and Good Luck Minis. Get started on your own diorama project today, and use Safari’s Ltd.’s products to create detailed and imaginative scenes.