When I was in elementary school, I LOVED making dioramas. I made lots of them. The two I remember the most were the Mayan temple (complete with human sacrifice happening at the top) and the revolutionary war (complete with bloody footprints of the soldiers in the snow).
Toy theatre has a similar appeal. The dinosaur toy theater was made using stencils and some wooden dowels. Some children can be very intimidated by the idea of drawing. They worry that what they make doesn't look like the "something" they had in mind. I think that using stencils could help children get over these concerns and get on with making some puppets and telling some stories!
(Thanks, Tricia, for having great stencils at your Valentine's Day party!)
This is really fun.
ReplyDeleteI loved making dioramas in elementary school, too, and just made my daughter's first one with her for a class project on the European Cony.
YOUR elementary school dioramas blow mine out of the water. The one I remember best was one I did with my closest friend. We worked on it for weeks and sadly I don't remember many details, just that it was about a Native American plains tribe and that I loved the project. It was sorely lacking in human sacrifices and bloody footprints!
Thanks for sharing this.
Misha - So great to meet another fan of the diorama! I have been thinking about dioramas a bit more in the past few days and how it so relates to my enjoyment of set design and giving shows/stories a sense of "place" and "space."
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