Animal Diorama-rama and a FREEBIE!

It's that time of year again!  Open House season is here and we are busily working on projects to share with our parents on our big night.  One of the big projects my students will be working on is their Animal Diorama and Research Report.  This was something I did for the first time last year, and it was a HIT!

I got this idea after my son had to make a diorama for his first grade class last year.  We had so much fun creating his animal diorama as a family project, that I decided it was something I had to do with my class too! I brought the idea up to my second grade team, and they were all very excited about it... so we went for it!  We decided to give the assignment the week before STAR testing.  Since we wouldn't be giving homework during the two weeks of testing, that would give students more time to research, gather materials, and work on their projects. Students had about three weeks to complete their projects.  We decided to have the students bring in their completed dioramas the day before Open House.  We were thrilled with the results!  

Here are a few student samples from last year:

Along with this diorama project, our students will also be completing an Animal Research Report poster with information and illustrations, as well as a writing assignment and an oral presentation.  Our students will be getting both a Science and Language Arts grade for this project.

I'm offering my Animal Research Report poster as a FREEBIE on TpT!  Here's a sneak peek:

You can grab it here.  Animal Research Report Poster

If you're looking for everything needed to do this Animal Diorama project with your class, take a peek at my Animal Diorama and Research Report Project Pack!  It's got everything you'll need in one convenient spot!  Last year, I struggled to find examples of dioramas online to show my students, so I've included detailed photo samples of my own students' projects, as well as a step-by-step presentation for your students.


Here's a preview of all of the goodies included in this project pack!

In addition to the Animal Research Report Poster and step by step presentation for your students (which can be projected onto your Smartboard or other type of computer projector), I've also included a student-friendly rubric with grading expectations for all aspects of this project, as well as a grading rubric for teachers to use when giving final grades for this project, student instruction sheet, writing template for research report, and a presentation outline to help guide students on what to focus on for their oral presentation.  It's everything I struggled to put together last year for this project in one convenient place!