When I was in sixth grade, I had to do a diorama. I still remember it, because my mom came up with the idea of sprouting grass seed in a shallow pan, so that instead of green-painted cardboard I had real grass for my little people to sit in. I made figures out of clay, and I don’t remember what all else. It didn’t fit in a shoebox, though; it ended up being free-standing on its cardboard base. I don’t remember how I got it to school, but I suspect strongly that I had help.
Now it’s my son’s turn. His does fit in a shoebox. He’s supposed to do a diorama about France, and so chose to do the Eiffel Tower. I had visions of him trying to construct the thing out of clay, popsicle sticks and/or toothpicks, with associated howls of frustration because while he builds amazing things from Legos, things not intrinsically designed to fit together give him fits. I asked him if he wanted to build a model or if he wanted to put a picture as the background in the back of the shoebox. To my relief, he thought that the picture was a fabulous idea, but wanted it painted rather than as a photograph. Hmm. We found a good photo to work from, and I drew a pencil sketch on watercolor paper.
I helped with the painting of that, and then it was time for modeling compound. Crayola makes something that can be modeled like clay, air dries very quickly, feels rather like marshmallow, and is paintable. That’s what we used, and he now has a seated human figure holding a dog on a leash, a cat and another little person sitting cross-legged, two wee chairs and a pedestal table. They’re all drying on the card table, and will be painted tomorrow before being glued into position. The table and chairs aren’t particularly in proportion to the people, but hey, he’s 12. Now he’s painting grass and a sidewalk while I keep him company. I suspect he’ll remember this as long as I have the Indian Village.
He’s also answered some factual questions, done a written report on French history, and prepared an oral report. He’s looking forward to presenting the whole thing to his Social Studies teacher. Me? I’m looking forward to his teacher’s response. It’s his project, but I don’t feel at all bad about helping with it. All I’ve done is mechanical execution. The plans and ideas have been all his, and that’s the important part.
Je suis certain qu’il sera merveilleux! And if I had known, I would have loaned you my airport-souvenier Tour Eiffel.
It didn’t occur to me to mention it. Thanks for the thought, though.