Friday, October 3, 2008

Ryan's 5th Grade Diorama Project

Ryan's social studies class recently had an assignment to complete a diorama of an American Indian region. Ryan picked the pacific northwest for his area even though he is part Chickasaw by birth. I know, I know - we don't look Indian, but we are - a small part, but nonetheless a part.

He did such a good job on it and was so enthused about it! I was very proud of him for starting early enough on it such that it was done on time and without having to pull any late nights working. It also gave me an opportunity to check out some sections of hobby shops that I wouldn't normally venture into. I had no idea there is a whole line of 'stuff' out there for dioramas. There were two things that we bought for him that were pretty neat. The first one is a product that is called plaster sheets. It comes in a roll, almost like a roll of wallpaper but you cut it into strips, dip it in water and use it to form things like mountains by using wadded up newspaper under it. The other thing is a product that makes it look like real water! I'll have to admit, that was the coolest thing to me! Ryan made a river/stream by his mountain and made little salmon for it and then poured the water stuff over it. He also made a waterfall that I personally thought was neat but he said his friends had to ask what it was!

We were so enthused about the water thing that he ended up making a separate piece for the diorama to represent the ocean. This piece has waves, a whale and an Indian in a canoe.

A school project just shouldn't be this much fun!


We learned that the pacific northwest indians lived in homes made of wood as opposed to teepees.


He made the "salmon" out of modeling clay, then poured the fake water over that.


He made the canoes out of clay as well.


The "fish cooking over the fire" scene was somewhat of a last minute decision but I liked how he added the orange and yellow in it to symbolize the fire. Now the fish ... hmm, those look more like flathead catfish than salmon, but the effort was there!



To the right of the totem pole, you can kind of see the "water fall". I thought it was cool.





And last but not least, is the ocean scene - before and after.

1 comment:

fleur de lis cottage said...

Wow that turned out so cool. It would be neat to have a macro lens and shoot a pic of that.