Collage art for kids

How to Make a Nature Diorama for Kids

March 1, 2024

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Gather pinecones, leaves and seed pods on a nature walk. Then paint and assemble these materials with this fun nature diorama project for kids. Project and post by Kiera Gladstone of ArtClassPDX.

Updated March 2024

Any time of year is a great time for a nature walk! I find it’s more fun to take a walk when I have a mission.

Grab a bag for collecting and invite young artists to look for abandoned acorn tops, seed pods, waxy leaves, sticks and small pebbles.

Look up, look under logs, look beneath your feet. You never know what you’ll find!

Paint your nature items to give them a pop of color, and then assemble them in a box or box lid for a fun and creative nature diorama!

How to Make a Nature Diorama with Kids

MATERIALS

A couple of boxes (shoe boxes or lids of gift boxes work well)
A few colors of bright acrylic paint + white paint
Paint brush and paint container
Hot glue or YES! Paste
Drawing tools of your choice
Book pages from an old nature/bird identification guide (these can be found at almost any thrift shop)
Collected nature items

INSTRUCTIONS

Decide on nature items to use
Once you’ve gathered your nature items, spread out all of your found materials. Decide which ones to include in the box.
Paint the nature objects
Then mix the acrylic paints with a bit of white. This helps the colors show up well when painting on natural objects.

Next, paint the objects that were chosen for the box.
Draw a nature scene
Think about something you saw that you couldn’t put in your collection bag. An interesting tree, a bird or a funny shaped cloud.

Use the book paper to draw that image.
Glue materials inside box
Allow the painted materials to dry and attach them into your box. YES! Paste is great for young children, it’s like hot glue without the risk of burning oneself with the glue.

When your box is finished it will tell the story of your nature walk and will hopefully inspire you to create more stories with natural materials found right in your own backyard.

nature diorama — Photo by Kiera Gladstone

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Keira Gladstone

Keira Gladstone has been teaching art for twenty years. She started her teaching career in Washington, DC where she taught early childhood art. Her collaboration with Little Loft Studios created more opportunities to offer art to families in her community. She and her family moved back to Portland, Oregon a few years ago. She continues to teach art to elementary students and offers summer sessions in her backyard art studio.

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