Arctic–semi homeschool project

The 2nd grader had to make a diorama about the Arctic. hmm ok. But the homeschooler teacher in me is a little . . well, let’s just say I was googling a lot and he is wayyy less artisticly patient than the 6th grader so there might have been some teeth grinding and eye clenching and I might have had to have my wonderful hubby help him finish it or I would have gone absolutely crazy with frustration.

Here are some of the things I found for him to use:

I found a box and a piece of cardboard to wedge in it. The diorama was about the arctic habitat and I wanted him to understand both the land and sea habitats.

I had him go digging through the gift wrapping supplies and find white or silver tissue paper and he glued it to the box and cardboard wedge but you could read through it so we also glued tinfoil on it, too.

I printed the pictures out and had him cut them out – leaving space around the and enough of an edge that they can be staggered for perspective. Hard for him to do with his dysgraphia but was good practice for him.

I showed him how to glue the fishing line on with a scrap paper glued over it on the backside. And he had a ball with those!

I was trying to teach him perspective and might have gotten a wee irritated when the husband just let him glue the photos on any old way wherever. (time for me to breathe and let go of my perfectionism and control and understand now was not the time to try to teach perspective, now was the time to Get ‘Er Done).

I had wanted him to glue cotton balls or sytofoam peanuts as snow or icebergs but that did not happen. Knowing he had to explain his model, I printed the same photos much smaller and he trimmed and glued them to a piece of paper and then wrote the name of each animal (so he did not have to remember it). Then we glued these to each side of the diorama. I just loved the big polar bear infographic and had to use it somewhere so he just glued it to the backside.

I think it came out nice. I was happy that he had done all the work with minimal help from us (well, I did most of the prep work but he did almost all the hands on work). And he got an A! He was the only one to do the arctic! I guess the ocean habitat is way more fun for most folks. But I was glad he got to learn some new facts and was interested in it.