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How to Build a Biome in a Box

Biomes are areas of the Earth that feature similar terrains, vegetation, animals and climate. By building a biome in a box, students learn about different biomes and how landscape and weather patterns affect life. Because creating these biomes requires a bit of research, encourage your child to choose a biome that interests her and let her decide how to represent the features of her chosen biome. If your child is imaginative, allow her to create the biome objects from craft supplies or common household items. If your child prefers to learn by reading, she can read about the biome and use images from the magazines or Internet sites she finds.

Things You'll Need

  • Medium-sized cardboard box
  • Scissors
  • Paint
  • Paintbrushes
  • Images from magazines
  • Glue
  • Sand
  • Baking soda
  • Rocks
  • Clay
  • Small plastic animals and trees
  • String
  • Toothpicks
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Instructions

    • 1

      Choose a biome. Options for biomes include tropical rainforests, deserts, tundras, deciduous forests, savannas, freshwater lakes and estuaries.

    • 2

      Research the chosen biome to learn about its terrain, average precipitation, temperature, plants and animals. The resources section of this article provides a good starting point for your research.

    • 3

      Find a medium-sized cardboard box. Try to find a cardboard box that is a bit larger than a shoe box.

    • 4

      Cut off any flaps from the top of the box. Turn the box on its side so that the open top faces you. This is how you will present your biome re-creation.

    • 5

      Paint or decorate the inside walls of your box to coincide with the characteristics of your chosen biome. For example, if you are focusing on a freshwater lake, paint the inside of the box blue. If you are focusing on the desert, consider painting sand dunes. If your biome contains trees, paint trees. If your biome is mostly sunny, paint a sun on the back wall. Precipitation can be represented by painting rain or snow on the wall. Alternatively, you can cut or print out images from newspapers, magazines or the Internet and paste the images on the inside of your box. Wait for the paint or glue to dry before proceeding with the project.

    • 6

      Use the bottom of the inside of the box to reflect the terrain of your biome. Be creative. For a desert, use real sand; for snow, baking soda. Create mountains or sand dunes from clay and gather interesting small stones to make a rocky terrain. Plastic trees from a craft supply store can dot your landscape.

    • 7

      Add animals to your biome. You can purchase small plastic animals, paint the animals on the inside of the box, cut out images of the animals or form animals out of clay. If your biome has birds or insects, suspend them from string from the top of the box. Poke a hole in the top of the box and tie one end of a string to the bird. Push the free end of the string up through the hole and tie it to a toothpick. The toothpick will keep the string from pulling through the hole. You can use the same process for fish in an aquatic biome.

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