My Museum Diorama

Natural History Museums are famous for their displays and dioramas. Dioramas are displays that recreate a scene with plants, animals and a painted background. The scene could be of dinosaurs from millions of years ago or of a forest with trees, deer and birds. 

Follow these steps to create your own museum diorama at home:  

Set the stage 

See what you have around the house that you can reuse. Any cardboard, shoebox, old tissue or cereal box are great options for creating your diorama but there are no rules. For this example, we used an old shoebox. 

Create the background 

Think about what type of scene you want to create. Is it in a forest? Under the sea? Or maybe it’s in the city. Decorate the background of your diorama to help your visitors understand where the scene is taking place. You can do this by using colored paper for the sky and the land, coloring your background, or drawing on paper and then placing it in the background of your diorama. You can even cut out images from magazines you have lying around – after asking for permission. 

Make and place your characters 

Now comes the real fun! It’s time to make plants and animals for your diorama and there are many ways to do this.  

You can draw and color each item you want in your diorama. If you want your figure (like a tree) to stand up in your diorama, then leave a 2 cm tab at the bottom of the picture when you cut it out. Fold back the tab, and glue or tape it to the bottom of the diorama. This will help your figure to stand upright. 

If you have action figures, LEGO or toy animals, you can use these in your diorama. Use your imagination, creativity and whatever you have around the house.