This was actually the 4th grader’s school project a few months ago. We had so much fun researching and learning about River otters and making the shoebox diorama together. First she drew the otters’ habitat on paper, and then started building the diorama on a shoebox bit by bit by herself, using mostly recycled materials that we have around the house.
(I actually wanted to show you her impressive habitat draft, but I couldn’t find the photo in my photo album now. Argh! 
Hopefully she still has the original drawing so that I can show u later.)
Here’s my contribution to her project…these polymer clay river otters models. It was our first time playing with polymer clay. My original intention was for her to create her own models. But becos I was too curious, and couldn’t wait for her to be back from school, I went ahead to create these otters first. π And when she saw my models after school, she loved them so much that she decided to use them instead. Oh well… at least she did color these models herself! :p
(Idea from this pin on Pinterest.)
The polymer clay that we used is from Scupley, in translucent color. After the models were oven-baked, we painted them using Acrylic paints and seal it with all purpose acrylic sealant.
The background and river were painted using tempera paint.
The tree trunks were made of branches from our yard and she used recycled green crepe ribbons as the tree canopy. The otters den was made using twigs and she used hays (it was boy’s brilliant idea!) that she collected during our trip to a local farm last Autumn as wetlands plants such as cattails/ bullrushes.
Lily pads were created using recycled craft paper, pipe cleaners and gift tissues. Again, the floating tree log was from our yard. Notice the red crab on the log and fish in the river? Here’s another one…
Ain’t they cute?!
Tags: art & craft by crazymommy
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by Ange (Earthember)
