Here is a RainForest Diorama built by Abigail, and she had some help from her sister Hannah (A big thankyou to them for building it!)

This more creative and more fun than my first diorama. That one uses just paper to show the various parts of the rainforest. This one uses real looking trees and miniature animals!

If you want to make something like this or have a child that will be making a diorama this is a good choice and it can be successfully built for a wide age group. I would say for ages 5 and up. Once you have all the materials you can probably make this diorama in an hour.

Abigail's RainForest Diorama

Here are some of the things that were used

• A cardboard box
• Some plastic trees and bushes bought in the flower dept of Michaels Crafts
• Some foam blocks (green)
• Some sticks found outside to make the log and branches for some of the animals to perch on
• An assortment of plastic animals like a crocodile, lizard, toucan, monkey, parrot, snake
• Some paint, Blue for the water and green for the base
• A hot glue gun

Some optional stuff to make it look even better

We Painted the water section blue. Then with a hot glue gun we glued the foam blocks into place. And what you can see in the picture is how we added some nice grass and soil texture to the blocks and along the side of the river.

This green texture is something that you can buy. It comes in small bags or plastic shakers. You spray or brush glue onto the blocks then you sprinkle on the grass like texture.

Fine Turf Shaker, Green Grass This is what we used to sprinkle on. It comes out looking like a nice grassy surface. It comes in a lot of different earthy colors like browns and shades of green. And it also comes in different textures from very fine to thicker which ends up looking like bushes.

Next we inserted the trees. You can stick the stems right into the foam or you can also add some hot glue to make sure they stay firm and in place.

Now we finish it off by adding some plastic animals and some sticks as dead trees and logs. The arrows show how we used the stem from one of the trees to form a hook. We glue a wire to the parrot and then suspended it from the stem. This makes it look like it is flying about the canopy of the rainforest.

Some Tips about your RainForest Diorama

• Try to arrange it so it is like a real rainforest. There are plants, trees and animals at the different layers so make your diorama like that. You can make little signs and attach them in different parts of the diorama to point out the various types of animals and plants.
• Make it nice and crowded! Put a lot of stuff in there because the rainforest is a very lush and crowded place that has a big variety of plants and animals.
• I have a diorama fact sheet here that you can print up. It explains the five layers of the rainforest About the Rainforest
• Here is a link to the other Rainforest Diorama project that you can print up and put together. That diorama is a paper one.

RESOURCES

Scene-A-Rama Kits - These kits are for making dioramas

Scene-A-Rama Basic Diorama Kit - Use this kit to create a flat, landscaped surface for your project. It includes everything you need to make plains, prairies, grasslands, farmlands, woods and meadows.

Scene-A-Rama Bushes, Foliage & Grasses Kit - Use this kit to create short and tall grasses, weeds, bushes, shrubs, hedges, ivy, flowering plants and roads and paths.