Habitat Craft Projects for Elementary Kids

Make a replica of a swampy marsh.

Every living creature on Earth has its own habitat, the ecological area where it lives, hunts and breeds. Every biome, from the hot, dry desert to the frozen Arctic, is the habitat of some animal. Teach your children about this essential scientific concept by creating a craft model of several biological habitats.

Woodland Habitat Craft Model

Create a model of the forest habitat with your children. Use a large, green poster board. Other supplies needed are four or five paper towel rolls, a package of construction paper, a package of modeling clay, clear tape, glue, safety scissors and small forest animal toys (bears, deer, owls, squirrels and wolves). Working with your children, cover the paper towel rolls with brown construction paper to make tree trunks. Cut out branches and leaves from brown and green construction paper and attach them to the paper towel trunks. Glue the trees to the green poster board in different areas. Cut a small stream out of blue paper and glue it to the poster. Make rocks, dirt mounds and fallen tree branches out of the clay and glue these to the poster board. Glue the toy animals to the poster in various spots.

Desert Habitat Craft

To make a model of the desert habitat, use a large, plastic container or tray. Other supplies needed are a small bag of craft rocks, sand, modeling clay and small toy desert animals (hare, snake, coyote, desert mouse and vulture). Assist your child in spreading the sand over the surface of the tray. Make small and large cacti and desert plants out of the modeling clay. Sprinkle the stones over the sand. Place the toy animals in various places on top of the sand.

Arctic Habitat Craft

Use a large, blue poster board. For foam use a block of 2-foot-long, 4-inch-thick plastic foam and a sheet of 2-foot-long, 1-inch-thick plastic foam. Other supplies needed are a foam cutter, glue and toy Arctic animals (polar bear, arctic fox, snow hare and seal). Cut the edges of the plastic foam block so that they appear jagged like the edges of a large ice sheet. Glue the block to the blue poster. Cut several small, circular ice floes out of the plastic foam sheet and glue those to the poster as well. Glue the toy animals onto the plastic foam ice floes.

Jungle Habitat Diorama

For this project, use a large shoebox, a package of construction paper, a package of modeling clay, a spool of twine or jute, safety scissors, glue and toy jungle animals (leopard, parrot, gorilla and monkey). With your children's help, glue green construction paper to the inside of the shoebox. Let your kids cut out trees and wild grass shapes from construction paper and glue these to the inside of the box. Glue strands of twine across the top of the box as vines. Place the animals inside of the diorama.

References

• From Graves to Caves: Modeling Your Diorama!; Fred Deruvo
• How to Build Dioramas; Sheperd Paine
• Scenery for Model Railroads, Dioramas & Miniatures; Robert H. Schleicher