Earlier this week, I shared some fun, colorful, mixed-media rainforest animal crafts with you. Within that post, I also shared a glimpse into our epic Rainforest Diorama from the Exploring Rainforests Family Unit Study. Today, I thought I would share with you a bit more about this amazing creation!
Exploring Rainforests Family Unit Study
But first… what is a Family Unit Study? I’m so glad you asked!
Our Family Unit Studies take one big topic—like Rainforests—and break it down into ten manageable, bite-sized learning topics. This format gives you the freedom to dive into learning at a pace that works for your family. Perhaps you do one area per day, perhaps one per week. Whatever suits your fancy!
In Exploring Rainforests, we explore the following ten topics:
- What is a Rainforest?
- Tropical vs. Temperate
- Top Layer—Canopy
- Middle Layer—Understory
- Bottom Layer—Forest Floor
- Biodiversity
- Amazon Rainforest
- Indigenous People
- Congo Rainforest
- Daintree Rainforest
Each of the ten topics contains everything you need for that topic, including:
- a curated YouTube video,
- suggested book,
- a “what’s happening” section,
- an interesting fact,
- a discussion question,
- literacy and math enrichment questions,
- and an ultimate-can’t-be-beat hands-on activity!
How to Create a Shoebox Rainforest Diorama
Today, I’m going to share with you how to build a rainforest diorama, how to incorporate lots of learning into the process, and how to keep everything nice and easy for you!
Materials
To create your rainforest diorama, you will need:
- three boxes (shoeboxes work wonderfully!)
- scissors
- hot glue gun
- tape
- paint and paintbrush
- construction paper
- clay or plasticine
- other craft supplies to decorate your rainforest (optional)
Step One: Prep the Boxes
We started by cutting the tops off of the boxes and painting the interiors green. We even “mixed in” some color theory as we mixed three different shades of green paint (pun 100% intended). Once the boxes were dry, we stacked them on top of one another, securing them together with some hot glue.
To make the trees, we simply rolled up some brown construction paper and cut some holes between the diorama layers so some of the trees could stretch right the way to the top.
As the kids were busy painting and creating trees, we had some amazing conversations using the interesting facts and discussion questions from the unit study as jumping-off points.
Did you know that rainforests cover around 6% of the Earth’s surface but are home to about half of the world’s wildlife?! I wonder why rainforests are so important to all life on Earth?
I love starting new topics with conversations like this! They help to get the kids interested in learning more—and in this case, excited about filling their diorama!
Step Two: The Canopy
Once the diorama was prepped, learned more about each layer and made plants and animals to add to the diorama. For the canopy, we cut out leaves and vines from construction paper and used plasticine to create different types of birds and the cutest little sloth you ever did see:
Step Three: The Understory
Next, we created animals for the middle layer, called the understory. This is where animals like jaguars, gorillas, snakes, and other amphibians thrive. We also added some nice big, broad leaves cut from construction paper and green wool roving. (Our lovely maccaw also decided to flutter down to see what was going on!)
Step Four: The Forest Floor
Last but not least, we learned about the forest floor, where termites, worms, armadillos, wild pigs, and more live. We also added a little water feature to the forest floor, which you can see in one of the pictures a bit further down.
As we worked on each layer, we read books, watched YouTube videos, and completed math and literacy enrichment questions (all included with the unit study, laid out step-by-step).
This ensures that multiple learning types are accommodated—visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing. It also keeps my children engaged, interested, and provides truly deep learning!
One of my favorite books that we read for this unit study is Over and Under the Rainforest by Kate Messner:
The artwork and language are both absolutely beautiful. The book also gave us lots of inspiration for what to add to our diorama—and had us googling to learn more about animals like the adorable agouti!
As a homeschooling mom with four children, you can imagine the amount of arts and crafts and paper of all sorts that fill our home. I’ve gotten better at appreciating these pieces while they’re relevant to our learning, then snapping a picture and—with great emotional difficulty—tossing them in the recycling or garbage.
But this one? This one I could not bear to part with when we wrapped up the unit study!
In fact, I’m looking at it right now, and even covered with a thin layer of dust, it still makes me smile thinking of what an amazing time we had together learning all about the rainforest.
A Rainforest Unit Study for Ages 4 to 12
Ready to explore the Rainforest with the whole family? Check out a sample to see how easy it is and grab your copy of the Exploring Rainforests Family Unit Study right here:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/products/family-unit-study-rainforest
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Thank you so much for reading, my friend!
xo
Sarah
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