Paper craft · Challenge · about 70 minutes
Layered Woodland Habitat Diorama
Uses scissors · Uses glue · Adult help suggested
- Card stock printed with sheet 1 (layers 1 and 4), 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Card stock printed with sheet 2 (layers 2 and 3), 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Card stock printed with sheet 3 (base and side walls), 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Blunt-tip scissors
- Glue stick
- Ruler (to check the scale bar and to help crease)
For the grown-up: Help cut the wavy and rounded top edges of the layers, and the inside corners where the flaps meet the layers.
Safety: Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.
Blue dashes: valley fold (toward you). Pink dash-dot: mountain fold (away from you). Thick line with scissors: cut. Yellow: glue.
-
Start. Print the three sheets at 100% (Actual size) on card stock. Check that each 5 cm bar measures 5 cm.
-
1. Cut: Cut out the four layers, the base and the two side walls. Follow the wavy tops of the layers closely and keep every flap.
-
2. Mountain fold: Fold the flap at the bottom of each layer backward, away from the picture, along its dashed line.
-
3. Glue: Rub glue on the back strip of the base. Stand layer 1 (the sky) on it, flap toward the back, and press the flap down.
-
4. Glue: Glue layer 2 (the hills and the deer) on the second strip the same way.
-
5. Glue: Glue layer 3 (the trees and the owl) on the third strip.
-
6. Glue: Glue layer 4 (the fox and the rabbit) on the front strip.
-
7. Valley fold: Fold the bottom flap and the back tab of each side wall toward the picture side.
-
8. Glue: Glue the left wall: its flap on the left edge strip of the base, its tab on the front of layer 1's edge.
-
9. Glue: Glue the right wall the same way on the right edge.
-
10. Check: Look in from the front at eye level: the sky seems far away and the fox seems close. Name each animal and where it lives.
If something goes wrong
- A layer leans forward or back. Crease its flap sharply and press the whole flap flat on its strip; hold it for a minute while the glue sets.
- The layers hide each other. Each layer must stand on its own strip: back layer at the back, layer 4 at the front.
- A side wall does not fit. Its tall end goes at the back against layer 1, and the low end at the front.
- A thin part of a layer tore. Mend it from the back with a small piece of tape.